A Thousand Years
by Kasai120
Summary: A youngling must adjust to world he never knew existed: a place that is a myth to the autobots and decepticons. Will he be able to live a great life or will his shy nature hold him back from a successful life?  Prowl's origins. TFA
1. Chapter 1: A New Home

A/N: This is my first Transformers story so PLEASE be gentle. I'm really trying to write this accurately but i'm still adjusting to not writing "hand" and having to write "servo". If I mess up, tell me and I'll correct it in the future. (By mess up I don't mean grammatically or spelling since I know I miss those constantly. I mean as far as Transformer slang and whatnot goes.) M'kay? Well, enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Transformers. If I did, I'd be rich. These OC's are mine and the "entbots" are an alliance I created.

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><p>"I just don't know what to do about him," the caretaker groaned. Cinderflare's red optics fell onto the youngling pressed to the corner of his room, staring out the window as if no one were there. His blue visor flashed a bit at his caretaker's pained words but he had no other reaction. From what she could recover, the youngling had lost his creators in a fire. His current caretaker, a large femme autobot named Rainer, seemed at her wit's end, unable to get this tiny bot out of his depression. Of course, many of the younglings in the orphanage had terrible pasts, some worse than others. Caretakers were trained on soothing them and adjusting them to a new environment. However, this little black and gold wonder and given them a run for their credits.<p>

Cinderflare's alliance, though decepticon, also belonged to a team called the entbots, short for entertainment robots. The ultimately neutral alliance had prevented either side from bothering them by simply singing and dancing, showing no desire for a war or to join sides. Autobots were usually comfortable with these terms though Megatron always tried to snag as many members as possible to train into his own warriors. The entbots went a long way in trying to hide their identity though, only being rumored of as a safe haven from the war but many not being lucky enough to find them except for certain orphanages in cases like the present one.

The con slowly approached the youngling as Rainer stayed by the door, her gaze filled with worry for both the youngling and the con's reaction. "Hello," Cinderflare greeted, her tone suggesting she were talking to someone older. The youngling tensed more so than before, his knees drawn up to his chest plating. The uncomfortable air around him must have been felt by the con as she took a few steps back. "I'm Cinderflare," she offered, silently prompting him with a response though the youngling did not oblige her. "I am going to take you to a new ship." Once again, it was a prompt for him to speak but the only indication she knew he could even hear her was his head slowly moving from the window to a seemingly interesting floor tile. The youngling was cautiously picked up, the two femmes wondering if he was going to wail and click but he was an empty shell, his body not reacting to being picked up. The femmes wished each other luck and bid farewell.

Upon entering the small ship that would be transporting them back to the Ark IV, the base for the entbots, the youngling finally began to move a bit in Cinderflare's arms, not used to the chill of the room. She clicked to him quietly, trying to shush him and it eventually worked as she held him close to her spark, radiating him in the heat of it. His blue visor dimmed to black, a sign he was slipping into recharge. The femme smiled gently, setting course for the Ark IV, a clicking youngling fast asleep in her arms.

The youngling hesitantly opened his eyes, dipping his digits beneath his visor to rub his optics of recharge. "Ah, there he is," a mech's voice boomed, jolting the youngling from his recharge fully, his optics wide behind the visor. His optics found the source of the loud booming voice: a bright blue and white mech with deep blue optics and a large grin. From what the young mech could tell, he was in a medbay. Wires and tools were hung up everywhere from a little above his reach to the ceiling where some cons were looking down at him at the sound of the blue mech's voice. "The name's Riffraff, kid. I'm the lead medic 'round here," he informed. "What's your name," Riffraff pressed, now seeming to turn more serious since he knew the youngling wasn't exactly sociable.

The youngling stared down at his stabilizing servos, swinging them back and forth as he sat on the large examining table. "Prowl," he finally muttered, his voice nearly surprising him with not having used it in more than a metacycle.

He flinched again at the booming laugh of the medic. "At last! He speaks," he exclaimed, his grin even wider than before, writing it down on a datapad.

Now that Prowl had found his voice he couldn't help but voice his curiosity. "What's that for," he asked, gesturing his head vaguely to the datapad.

Riffraff glanced up to see what he was referring to then replied, "Just some info I need on you for the records, for my superiors, and for your health." The youngling nodded. After a few breems of silence, Riffraff continued his questioning and everything went smoothly until: "So your creator and carrier-"

"What about 'em?" Prowl all but snarled as he tensed up, his visor glowing.

Riffraff raised an optic ridge. "A touchy subject, I know, but you can't keep this bottled up in your spark, Prowl. It's harming you more than helping."

Prowl tensed more so and got to his stabilizing servos, pacing the table before retreating to the end farthest from the questioning medic. At the sound of his name being called after a minute, Prowl's engine gave a roar and he fixed the medic with a glare, his denta clenched together. The medic only stared him down as breems went by. The anger finally built itself into painful memories inside the youngling's spark. He turned away from the medic's stare finally, turning his back as he brought his knees up and hugged them, placing his chevron on top of them. He vaguely heard the roll of a chair come closer and flinched as a servo was placed on his back, a digit drawing traces on his plating, trying to calm him. The only thing the motion did was make him worse, the motion bringing back memories of his carrier.

A pain built up in his chest plating, a pain he hadn't felt since the day his creators went up in fire along with his home. He tensed more so, wanting that pain to just go away but it only got worse until he finally collapsed into pathetic sobs, not caring about the embarrassment he was sure to feel in front of this new friend. The big hand on his back stopped its motions and instead pulled Prowl to Riffraff who held him to his chest plating, rubbing circles on his back plating and touching the soft sensors on the sides of his head. Riffraff let out a vent of air, equivalent to a sigh, as the youngling's wails of audio receptor breaking intensity finally settled to little more than soft hiccups. His optics looked hesitantly up to the medic, expecting him to be annoyed but only found a soft smile when his optics were met.

/Riffraff, is everything all right in the medbay? I heard some youngling screams,/ voiced Crystalsky over his comlink.

/No, ma'am, he's just fine. Just a bit of a scare is all,/ he replied, carrying the still hiccupping youngling to one of the recovery rooms in the back of the medbay. A small recharge berth lay on the side of the room. "It's all right, Prowl," he cooed, trying to get the youngling from clinging to his plating and into the berth. The hiccups slowed down as he went about rearranging some of the boxes in the room. He moved to leave but paused at the sound of very worried clicking as Prowl's small head lifted from the berth, afraid to be alone in such a foreign and dark place.

He peeked back at his patient curiously, trying to see if he was in pain or just scared. "Stay," begged Prowl, his voice small and scared compared to how angry he had been earlier.

Riffraff frowned. "I wish I could, buddy, but I have some work to get done." The dejected and hurt look on the youngling's faceplates was one to make a mech's spark split. "All right. Just for a little bit though," he replied reluctantly which made the youngling instantly perk up. As he sat by the dozing youngling, he gave a jump as a small servo touched his that was resting on the berth, curling around one digit. The medic gave a light smile, leaning his head back as he now realized he wouldn't be getting any work done tonight.

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><p>AN: Yay? Nay? Review! :D Feel free to ask questions too~ Oh! If any of you are going to continue to read, I'd like to add that there will be song fics in here later because well.. entbots... singing.. songs...=song fic? :D


	2. Chapter 2: Exploring

**A/N:** Liz: Thank you very much for the review. =) And here is the update~

**DISCLAIMER:** Believe it or not, I don't own Transformers. Anyone who told you other day: "Hey, Kasai120 owns Transformers" was lying to you. OCs are mine though (which, so far, is everyone but Prowl). The entbots allegiance is also of my own creation.

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><p>A soft shake woke the recharge deprived medic. His optics searched the darkness to find who had woken him only to land on Dasher, a young medic in training who looked a little amused though still troubled. "As much as I'd hate to break up this sweet moment," he started, looking to the youngling who was still holding onto Riffraff's digit, "I need some help in the medbay." The older medic raised a ridge in question, preferring to recharge again. "Two mechs and a lot of high-grade, need I say more," Dasher asked, his expression now change to one of impatience though if it was toward his mentor's laziness or the two glitches in the medbay was left to anyone's guess. Riffraff looked over to Prowl who still had a slack grip on his digit. The slight twitches of movement from the recharging youngling was a sign he was in deep recharge so surely it was safe to pull away from him for a joor or two to fix the mechs in his medbay. Carefully, the mech pried his digit from the young bot's servo and quickly left the room to the medbay to handle the two bumbling glitches.<p>

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><p>Prowl onlined his optics, looking around the dark room curiously. Curiosity swiftly turned to fear as he realized where he was and that Riffraff was gone. His spark jumped in his chest remembering the termination of his creators and he quickly climbed out of his berth, darting to the door that was open just a crack. Sliding his digits through the crack, he pulled the door with every wire in his chassis until the door acknowledged someone was trying to open it and flew open, knocking the youngling back. Prowl stood again, racing through the door and towards the medbay since it was the only place he knew on the whole ship. He paused at the entranceway seeing more cons and bots in there than he remembered.<p>

Lurking in the shadows, Prowl looked at the bigger mechs and femmes, searching out Riffraff. As he looked around a second time, his spark sinking the first at not spotting his friend, he froze. A decepticon pointed him out to his friend and both turned to look at the youngling who now stood frozen in fear. It wasn't the decepticons that scared him but only the size of the two that looked over at him. They were probably the biggest in the room. The others soon found what the two patients found so interesting and turned to look at him as well, all conversation dying in the room as Prowl became the center of attention.

A voice broke the tension as a door was heard closing from the entrance to the right of Prowl who couldn't see the mech but recognized the voice immediately. "What's everyone so quiet for," the mech's voice asked though it seemed light in a joke. Riffraff! The little bot's sparked jumped for joy and he peeked out from the hallway only to see Riffraff's smile turn to a worried frown which made Prowl shrink back. "Prowl, what are ya doin' up," he asked, crouching to Prowl's level to try and calm the now shaken youngling.

Prowl looked over to the others in the room, before being interrupted by the recharge-deprived and snapped call of his name which made him flinch and look down. "You weren't there when I woke up so I went to go find you but I thought you got offlined like my creators and and-" The young bot was interrupted as Riffraff picked him up.

The medic moved his young patient to his left arm, pressing his right servo to his head. Primus, it just wasn't his orn. He looked down at Prowl as the young bot began to quiver in his arm, thinking that Riffraff was too angry at him to speak. He quickly placed his large servo over Prowl's. "I'm not mad at ya, Prowl. I'm just really tired," he explained, optics softening at the youngling seemed to relax and seemed to be just as tired as Riffraff.

"Sir, you can get some recharge if you want. All they need is some dents fixed now and we can handle that," Dasher offered. Riffraff glanced to the others who quickly nodded their agreement. With drowsy thanks, Riffraff returned the sparkling to his berth and resumed his stay on the ground next to it. Prowl's servo found Riffraff's digit once again and, finally content, the little bot slipped into recharge to the sound of the bigger bot's snores.

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><p>Prowl woke to the feeling of his empty tanks whining in protest for some energon. He onlined his optics and found Riffraff still in recharge beside him. " 'Raff," he called, poking the older bot on his servo. Prowl gave a small huff when that did nothing. He climbed down from the small berth and tried to give the medic another shake but it did nothing. Too hungry to keep trying, the youngling proceeded to the door that seemed to still not be able to close all the way. He used his same method as before but knew when to step back now. Thoroughly proud of himself, the young bot made his way down the hallway.<p>

The mischievous little bot quickly crouched down and dimmed his visor, searching the room only to find Dasher hanging up tools while dancing to some music he was humming. The bot grinned. This was too easy! He made his way to the door and frowned. It _was_ too good to be true. The door wasn't cracked open like his was and seemed to need a code. Prowl stared at the glowing buttons above his head. Should he have been taller than two feet, he probably could take a shot at the panel. Suddenly, beeping was heard from the door. The little bot smiled devilishly and pressed himself to the wall beside the door. Someone was coming in from the other side which would give him a way out! The klick the mech passed him, Prowl made a mad dash out the door and around the corner.

A quick look around proved to the youngling that he should have stayed in his berth. Mechs and femmes were everywhere and the ship he was in was as big as Cybertron to the little youngling. Clicking his discontent, he pressed himself to the wall, eavesdropping on the conversations buzzing around him. "Did you hear? Icescape interfaced with Roller!" "Hey mechs, I just got some cool tunes! Wanna check 'em out?" "Hey, Evergreen, wanna go get some energon?" Bingo! Prowl followed the mech and femme to wherever the energon was which seemed to be on an upper level. Prowl honestly thought for awhile that these two were lost but finally the smell of energon was in the air which caused a smile to light up on the youngling. "Yo, Evergreen, Roller, looks like you guys got yourselves a tailgater," a mech laughed, tilting his energon cube to Prowl who quickly dropped his smile, staring up at the green femme and red mech as he stepped back.

Evergreen frowned, crouching down. "It's okay, little one." She looked over to the red mech. "He must just be hungry and heard us talking about energon." She looked back over to Prowl who seemed very shaken, afraid of the them punishing him or of Riffraff getting angry at him. He remembered the night before where Riffraff grew angry with him and that was just for sneaking out of his room but for sneaking all the way downstairs… Prowl jumped as Evergreen went to pick him up. "Come here. It's all right." Prowl hesitantly stepped forward and the femme scooped him up and placed him on the counter. Roller handed Prowl a youngling energon cube which Prowl sipped, swinging his legs as a force of habit. The youngling listened as Evergreen spoke to her friends about how cute the youngling was and that she wondered who he belonged to.

As he finished off the cube, Evergreen approached him again. "What's your name, little one?"

Prowl stared into his empty cube. Well, they did give him energon. That meant they were nice, right? "Prowl," he mumbled, staring at the cube like he had never seen one before.

"That's a nice name," Evergreen replied, smiling at him. "Where is your guardian, Prowl?"

Guardian? "I don't have one I don't think," he replied, thoroughly confused as his concentration was broken from the cube.

Evergreen glanced worriedly over to Roller and the mech who had pointed Prowl out earlier. She finally turned back to Prowl's questioning optics. "You… don't have one? Well, who's been taking care of you?"

Prowl now relaxed a bit. If that's what she was wondering, she should have said that in the first place! "Oh, Riffraff," he said but his answer seemed to shock the three. He tensed again. "If Riffraff bad," he asked, not thinking that the medic was but the reaction he was given drove him to think that.

To his delight, Evergreen smiled. "No, Prowl, he's not. It's just, he's not exactly a mech who is usually a guardian. A guardian is usually less involved with their work but Riffraff is usually buried in his. You didn't say anything wrong, dear. You just confused us a great deal." She disposed of her and Prowl's empty cubes and picked him up. "Let's see if we can find Riffraff."

Prowl was about to voice his protest but lost his argument quickly as his optics just now truly took in his surroundings. Now that he wasn't frightened of losing the two cons he was following, the little bot had an opportunity to look at the ship. They seemed to be on a middle level since another set of stairs went up to the top floor. Altogether, there were about five floors from what he could tell. The lower most floor could be seen from all the floors where a stage was set along with random colorful instruments that varied in size and shape. The floor he was on right now had lights that constantly changed color as opposed to the floor the medbay was on that had only regular lights.

At the whoosh of the medbay door, Prowl frowned, having to break his view from the new world he had discovered to look around the medbay, shrinking into Evergreen's arms. "There you are, Prowl! Riffraff's been looking all over for you," Dasher exclaimed, quickly rushing over to Evergreen. "I can take him, Evergreen." Evergreen smiled and said goodbye to Prowl who seemed very reluctant on leaving her and going to Dasher. The only things he knew about Dasher was that he was a friend of Riffraff, liked to hum to himself, and very easy to sneak past. "Man, little guy, you almost had Riffraff tear me to shreds when he found out you snuck past me!" Dasher placed the little bot onto the medical table as he sat down at the chair next to the one Riffraff sat in before. He picked up a datapad and spun back around, writing on it with his stylus as he continued to glance up at the youngling who sat innocently staring back.

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><p>Love it? Hate it? Review! Also, any opinions on the OCs?<p> 


	3. Chapter 3: The First Step to Recovery

**A/N: **cmdrtekk: Thank you for letting me know! I actually had a whole other thing happening in this chapter, read your comment and was like: "Wow... Yeah, let's slow it down a tad". So thank you for the criticism and let me know if this seems any better. As far as interactions being short, I kind of make Prowl have the age of about a 6 year old and, as far as I can tell from my nephew who is approximately around his age, it's rather difficult to keep a long conversation going with someone that young. However, I did try to lengthen these interactions a bit in this chapter so, once again let me know... Sorry if I sound ranting in your head! I'm actually really grateful for your review! :D

Yumi k: haha glad you like him and thank you for the review!

So, tried to sow the story down a little bit. Hope you guys enjoy it!

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Transformers. Plain and simple. Hasbro owns this version I think along with Cartoon Network but I dunno.

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><p>Breems ticked on as Dasher continued his deskwork while Prowl played with a new toy Dasher had given him to entertain himself. It was a simple bouncy ball that would light up with a bunch of colors on a bounce or with a hit and then it would stop, prompting the youngling to hit it again. This toy had been keeping Prowl busy for about quarter of a joor before the whoosh of the medbay door caught his attention.<p>

A relieved smile was on the blue and white mech's faceplates as he walked over to the youngling who was clicking, unsure of the situation and worried Riffraff was angry with him. That thought left his processor as he was pulled into a hug by the large mech. "Primus, Prowl," Riffraff mumbled, his tone drenched in thankfulness for the youngling's safety. He pulled back and fixed Prowl with an unnerving glare. "Don't you ever sneak away like that again, you got it?" Prowl quickly nodded his confirmation to which Riffraff's anger faded again.

The youngling looked down at the bouncy ball in his servo then back to Riffraff. "Are you mad at me," he asked, fumbling with the toy.

Riffraff frowned. "A little bit but you didn't know much better."

Dasher was the one to interrupt the conversation between Riffraff and Prowl by asking a question that was on the entire medical team's processors. "So, boss, is he staying?" Dasher sounded impartial on the matter but he just truly didn't know what he would choose if he were Riffraff. The youngling had grown on him, from that Dasher could tell, but the medbay could be dangerous and the medics all ready had enough work to handle let alone raising a youngling. Some of the other medics looked up from their work, also curious on what Riffraff would say as they had seen him get very close to the youngling.

Riffraff remained silent for a breem, staring at the youngling who looked back at him hopefully, not wanting to leave the medbay. "I don't think he can," Riffraff finally concluded softly, pain evident in his voice. The mixture of relief and disappointment was a strange mix but it seemed to occupy everyone's spark at that sentence. All but the youngling's spark, that is. Prowl gave buzzes and clicks, hurt and angry by the rejection but all Riffraff could do was try and shush him but nothing seemed to be working. Finally, distressed himself, Riffraff grabbed the clicking and buzzing youngling up by his scruff bar. "Prowl," he growled, getting the upset bot's attention but it wasn't exactly good attention as the black and gold youngling curled into a ball. "Prowl," he began again, his voice much softer, "I don't say this to hurt you. If I had a different job, I would love to keep you around but, as shown by me not even able to get you energon this morning, it could never work. I'm sorry."

The youngling released small sobs, causing Riffraff to hold the youngling in his arms instead of by his scruff bar. He realized, based off of the other younglings he had to deal with, that once Prowl chose someone to latch onto, it was hard for him to stay away for long. The youngling's history had been dug up eventually since Prowl's young processor would trouble him with the horrific thoughts when he was asked to explain his past. When Riffraff had been searching for the youngling, he was informed by his leader of Prowl's past in which his creators had been burned in a fire. Based on Prowl's current behavior and the behavior that caused him to go in search of Riffraff in the middle of the night, he could only conclude that Prowl had a case of separation anxiety likely caused by his creators burning while Prowl was away from them.

The ball of gold and black stayed curled, his blue visor peeking out a bit making a crack in the ball he made. The blue visor glowed as the youngling looked around from the sliver he made in his alt mode. All of the younglings had the same alt mode, a ball, until they received their third shell but Prowl was still in his second. Prowl tried to take in the surroundings he could see in his sliver of sight. He could tell they were going downstairs which was new territory for the youngling. At this point, everything but a portion of the medbay was new territory but it was newer territory than the energon station. Prowl noticed the change in lighting, a yellower tint in the lighting that was much softer and more relaxing than the blinding white lights of level three.

Prowl peeked out a bit more and, seeing way more mechs and femmes than he had ever seen before, realized his mistake and quickly curled back up. "It's all right, Prowl. No one here's going to hurt you," Riffraff reasoned, taking a seat at a table for two. Prowl peeked out hesitantly. No mechs or femmes were staring at him but some casted casual glances over to him. He returned to his robot mode and was a bit shocked when he was picked up by the medic and put into the chair across the table. Prowl looked up at the mech in question. "I need to get some datapads filled out," he explained. Only now did Prowl notice the large stack of datapads in Riffraff's hand which were now stacked on the table.

Riffraff grabbed a datapad and quickly got involved in his work. Truth be told, this was only the first step in trying to branch Prowl out to the other mechs and femmes. If Prowl would be content to sit in the chair, he would eventually get bored and would probably start looking around. Riffraff grinned a little to himself when he glanced up to see Prowl doing just that within a few breems, his visor lit up in fascination towards the mechs and femme on the lowest floor with the stage, picking up instruments. They began doing sound checks and Prowl looked on in curiosity. More mechs and femmes were coming down the stairs to the lowest level but instead stepped off the stairs and to the side where there were seats to watch the performance.

The three mechs scurried around the stage, helping each other set up with various cords and tuners. As the guitarist tuned up, the femme grabbed the microphone. "Testing one two. Hey, 'Raff raise a servo if you can hear me." Riffraff raised his free servo, the other still writing away. "Cinderflare?" After brief pauses and looking farther up to make sure every level had their sound systems working, the femme counted to the mechs behind her. Prowl now stood carefully in his seat, trying to see the mech on the piano, loving the sound of it.

After a few bars, the femme began to sing:

"_Cinderella's on her bedroom floor_

_She's got a crush on the guy at the liquor store_

_Cause Mr. Charming don't come home anymore_

_And she forgets why she came here_

_Sleeping Beauty's in a foul mood_

_For shame she says_

_None for you dear prince, I'm tired today_

_I'd rather sleep my whole life away than have you keep me from dreaming."_

The song continued and Riffraff smiled again as he realized how interested the youngling was. "You can go sit down there if you'd like. I still have to finish these but if you want to go watch the performance, you should go sit up there," he said encouragingly. Prowl seemed at a loss for what to do, thinking over the choice while the chorus was sung. He didn't want to leave Riffraff but he was pretty bored up here with nothing to do. Prowl carefully climbed down his chair and, with one glance at a still working Riffraff, walked toward the nearest staircase.

He made his way down the stairs, looking for a place where no one would be seated next to him but he was out of luck. The only places he could find like that were towards the middle and he didn't want to bother anyone from the song. Finally, he decided to sit next to another youngling that seemed close to his age if not a bit older. His bold color scheme of warm reds and oranges with strikes of yellow in it along with his red optics wouldn't usually seem approachable to a shy little autobot but Prowl merely shrugged off the paintjob, just finding it more obnoxious if anything.

"_I don't care_

_I don't care_

_Worry bout the maiden though you know_

_She's only waiting spent the whole life being graded on the sanctity of patience and a dumb_

_Appreciation_

_But the story needs some mending and a better happy ending_

_Cause I don't want the next best thing_

_No no I don't want the next best thing."_

As the guitar drew the song to a close, everyone gave their applause along with a few revs and hollered calls for the femme to hit up some mechs' comlinks. The femme just giggled at the hollers and thanked her audience. Several left then; going back to work or just somewhere else while Prowl still stared at the band as if they were still performing, taking in the colorful instruments and what each one did in the song. He really tried to figure out the femme though. How could she make such normal words sound that pretty?

Prowl was dragged from his staring when a servo waved in front of his optics. "Hello? Anyone in there," the little mech next to him seemed to be asking for the umpteenth time. Prowl turned his head sharply to the little decepticon who instantly shrank back at the swift movement. "Ah! It moved," he shrieked while the other younglings behind him giggled. Prowl moved his optics back to the band as they packed up; a bit disappointed they were leaving. "Finally, they're leaving," the little mech whined as the band began to walk past them, the three mechs and femme laughing at the exclamation from the impatient little con.

The femme turned to him. "Sorry, Firebolt, didn't mean to take up your guys' playtime." The younglings all told her it was okay at different times. Once the band was past their row, Prowl went to climb down only to be shoved roughly to the side by the little con and his friends. Curious on how the little younglings were planning on performing, Prowl followed them to the stage where they opened a chest filled with little instruments. Each seemed to know exactly what they wanted, seeming to be accustomed to the instruments. Prowl lingered awkwardly away from the younglings, trying to see what was left in the box. Once all of the other younglings scurried away to their own parts of the room, Prowl hoisted himself up to see into the box only to find it empty.

Disappointed, Prowl hopped down and began making his way up the staircase when a mech stepped into his way. "Where are you headed, younglin'? The instruments are down there," he laughed.

Prowl looked up at the autobot who was taller than Riffraff but had a skinnier build. "There's no more instruments left," Prowl stated, a bit of disappointment in his tone.

The mech smiled at the youngling, kneeling down so he wouldn't need to strain is neck cables. "Well, let's see," he started, holding his servo in a fist as he began to count, "We could have you share with someone or you can take a shot at singing."

Prowl tilted his helm. "Is that what that femme was doing before?"

The mech laughed, holding a servo to his helm. "Don't tell me you don't know what singing is!" Prowl shrank back as he knew he didn't. "Nah. That's all right, I'll teach ya. C'mon. I'm sorry what's your name?"

"Prowl," he replied, hesitantly taking a hold of the mech's hand when it was offered.

"Glad ta meet ya, Prowl. I'm Nightshade. Now, let's go see if we can get you an instrument."

Riffraff watched with his arms folded across his chest plate as Prowl spoke to Nightshade. He had asked the music teacher to add Prowl to his class. Nightshade tried to get out a protest, saying he wasn't taking any younglings until the next metacycle but after explaining Prowl's current situation, Nightshade finally obliged. Seeing Prowl approaching the little youngling named Firebolt, Riffraff held hope in his spark for Prowl as he carried the finished datapads back to the medbay, comming Nightshade on keeping his optics on Prowl for a little while.

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><p>Review~ Let me know what you think :D (Reviews=motivation :) )<p> 


	4. Chapter 4: A New Family

Riffraff let out a vent of air, carrying the clicking youngling in his arms, his visor dimming from his recharge-deprived state. "Come on, little one, you must rest," he cooed softly. Prowl laid on his chest plating, refusing to recharge after finding out that Riffraff had finally chosen a guardian for him. He had a very busy few orns and he was in need of recharge but was unwilling right now, protesting being taken away. He resisted the urge to shut his optics as Riffraff's digits ran across his head again, a soothing gesture that was slowly working on him.

Breems ticked on as the youngling refused to give into his caretaker's motions only to be interrupted by the swishing of the door as medics walked in and out of the medbay that was dimly lit to try and get Prowl to recharge. The medical staff had tried to get the youngling to recharge as well, but whenever someone tried to drag him away from Riffraff, who was in much need of recharge as well, he would throw a fit, assuming it was another method to get him away from his caretaker and to his new guardian. "He's still not out yet," Dasher asked in a whisper, having just stepped in to turn in his filled out datapads.

The weary optics of his mentor made the con release a vent of air and bend down next to the chair where a drowsy youngling laid on his caretaker's chest plating, clicking non-stop as he fought recharge with all of his strength. "C'mon, little guy, you gotta get some recharge." Dasher let his digits trace Prowl's weary face.

"No," came the weak but persistent reply, trying to move away from both of them. His caretaker gently pressed him back down which was much more than his little chassis could handle. After another joor, the youngling finally clicked himself out, recharging on top of a soon-to-be-recharging Riffraff.

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><p>"Prowl, we have to go," Riffraff grunted at the youngling who was hiding in between the crates in the corner of the room. The orn had begun with Riffraff frantically looking for him, leading to this conflict. The little blue visor shined in the shade of the crates, meeting Riffraff's optics with hatred and desperation.<p>

The other medics looked on, amused with the situation. Their boss, who everyone was betting on when his next vacation would be, was struggling with getting a youngling to go to his new guardian. The amusing point of the situation was that they thought Riffraff knew everything. He could fix a spark chamber and fix a processor in less than an orn but now he was struggling with helping a shy little youngling meet a new guardian. It wouldn't have been so surprising if Riffraff hadn't all ready handled situations like this before. Over the solar cycles, Riffraff had his share of defiant younglings who were loud and screaming but it was apparently the quietest ones he would have to worry about.

Dasher seemed to be the only medic trying to offer some advice in the situation. "Maybe you should go get Moonseeker. I mean, with her being his new guardian, we might have better luck if he gets to know her first."

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><p>A few breems later and the door swished open to which Prowl clicked in reply, making a racket as he scurried further back under the crates.<p>

"Is something wrong," a femme's voice asked gently.

"He's just a bit scared to leave," Riffraff replied calmly, a much different tone to him practically begging with Prowl before.

A smile was evident in the femme's voice as she reasoned, "Well, that's natural. After all, he has only left here a few times and he's already made the medbay his home in his processor." It was then that Prowl was seen by a glowing pair of red optics that he was unfamiliar with. He clicked uncomfortably, trying to make himself blend into the crates surrounding him and escape the con's gaze.

Apologies began to be said from Riffraff, but he was stopped by the femme that Prowl guessed was Moonseeker. "It's fine, 'Raff, really. He can stay here for a few joors if he wants. I'm not going to force him into my quarters." Prowl peeked out from his spot in the crates and was met with a reluctant gaze from Riffraff and a calm gaze from the femme.

He slowly got out of his hiding spot, staring at his pedes as he sat on the edge of a crate. The femme crouched down to his level. Her structure was large for most femmes, her wings making her look even bigger. Her orange and yellow color scheme was a bit too bright for Prowl's liking but she seemed to be the only one right now who wasn't ashamed of him or mad at him.

"Do you mind if I take you to see my quarters," she asked gently. Opposition was clear in his immediate tense posture and the snap of his head to look at her. "You don't have to stay but I just want you to come and see. I think you'll like it," she explained, offering a smile. This idea seemed to appeal to the youngling who wasn't currently being appreciated in the medbay. He reached his small arms out and was quickly scooped up by his new guardian who smiled to Prowl's previous caretakers before leaving with a curious youngling in her servos.

Riffraff jumped a bit as a servo landed on his shoulder plating. "He'll be okay, boss," Dasher said, his red optics looking hopefully at the door.

The old medic smiled as he looked over at his apprentice. "I know."

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><p>Prowl was taken from the third level of the Ark IV to the fifth level. This and the second level seemed to contain the most bots and cons. The fifth level was home to many due to most of the quarters being up there along with an energon station and sitting areas. The second level offered the same things except recharge quarters. What is lacked in quarters, it made up for in space and extra sitting areas.<p>

The youngling felt a bit more out of his element in the servos of someone who wasn't one of his friends though he did spot some others on the fifth floor he was familiar with which did bring a bit of comfort. Nightshade gave a wave as Prowl and Moonseeker caught his optics. Some of his youngling friends also gave chirps of greeting as they either played on the ground or were with their guardians or caretakers. Prowl was no longer an outcast in this place and was recognized by many as Riffraff's youngling or as the little black and gold youngling who just joined Nightshade's classes.

As Moonseeker began to head down hallway after hallway, Prowl began to cling more to her, unsure of where he was now or how to reach his friends again. The guardian's servo quickly found its way to the youngling's head, much faster than Dasher or Riffraff would have done. It usually took the mechs and femmes in the medbay a breem or two to figure out exactly how to make the youngling calm down but, just like Riffraff was with his medical tools, Moonseeker seemed to be in her element with the youngling.

Prowl watched as Moonseeker entered the code for room 3829 and the door swished open just like the medbay door had. He was not met with a room that was like the medbay at all nor like the room he slept in at the medbay. This place was much more furnished than the room filled with crates and a berth but it was also less filled and not as big as the medbay. It contained a berth with another one hovering above it which was home to an assorted array of toys and a small guitar. A desk was placed near the door and opposite the berths, some datapads scattered on it. Prowl recognized his designation and information on several of them and his gaze fell on them for several breems before looking around the rest of the room which branched off into another room, this one much smaller. It seemed to be washracks with several things for a youngling as well.

Moonseeker moved to put him down but Prowl held on tightly. After some coaxing and promises that there were no monsters hiding in the shadows, Moonseeker was able to set the youngling down. Moonseeker wandered over to her desk and sat down, looking through Prowl's files as the youngling looked around the room. He eventually climbed the small ladder to the higher berth. It was a normal sized berth for a grown mech but it was huge to the youngling. He was used to a large bed though, since he had slept on one with Riffraff before. A question popped into his processor and he looked up from the berth to the femme who was reading through a datapad, her face contorted a bit. Now more questions filled his head and he finally blurted out, "Are you okay?"

Moonseeker's ruby optics met the blue visor with a bit of shock. "Yes, sweetspark, I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

Prowl frowned a bit at the term of endearment, having only allowed his own carrier to use it. He dismissed this though as he wanted to answer her question. "You looked sad when you were reading." He recalled that she was reading a datapad about him. "Did I make you sad?"

It took the caretaker a klick to figure out what the youngling was talking about. "No, Prowl, no. It's just-" She tightened her grip on the datapad. "I can't believe all that you've been through and I wish you wouldn't have had to go through any of that." There was a moment of silence as Prowl thought through what she said. He finally nodded and leaned back a bit, his head dipped as he remembered the fire. He had tried to find them, he had tried to save them, but he failed. They were gone. He jumped as he realized he was being held again, his head resting on Moonseeker's chestplate. It took him a few kicks to realize that he was sobbing uncontrollably, releasing loud wails of pain.

It took a joor or two but Prowl finally calmed down. "I tried to save them," he finally whimpered, curling closer to his caretaker.

Circles were being lightly drawn on his head as Moonseeker replied quietly, "It's not your fault, Prowl. You were too little to help them." A digit fixed itself under the youngling's quivering head and tilted it up so they were looking at each other. "It wasn't your fault. Don't ever think that," she repeated more aggressively to the trembling youngling. She pulled him close again and he finally drifted off to recharge, obviously spent from the stress he just put on himself. Feeling a bit guilty for bringing up the topic, Moonseeker reluctantly turned back to her work. Deciding he was deep enough into recharge, the femme slipped out of the room to get some energon quickly.

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><p>Fear immediately seized the youngling as Prowl opened his optics and couldn't find his caretaker. Wrapping the soft red blanket around himself, Prowl cautiously climbed down the ladder from the higher berth. Prowl moved towards the center of the room and gave a jump as something made a loud clanging sound in the room. He squeaked and then twittered uncertainly, backing up under the desk. Trying to see in the dimly lit room, he stared at the corner he heard the noise from. The noise was heard again but now a bit closer. His spark was beating against his chamber sporadically as he pulled the blanket even tighter to his body, lubricant leaking from his optics as he squeezed them tight and curled up in the corner beneath the desk.<p>

There was a silence now that disturbed the youngling nearly as much as the noise did. Finally, there was the loudest clang yet on top of the desk, making Prowl scream. His scream was obviously heard as the door swished open. "Firebolt," Moonseeker growled, making Prowl freeze. Firebolt? That annoying flame colored youngling who teased him the first time they met?

"I was only pulling a little prank, Carrier," came the quick reply. It was obvious Firebolt knew he was in trouble since Prowl heard his steps retreating from the door cautiously.

"You know better than that, especially with all that he's been through," Moonseeker scolded, kneeling down now to take a look at Prowl who was wiping the lubricant from his face. "Come here, little one." She scooped up Prowl and placed him on the desk close to Firebolt, who's wings were drooping significantly. "If he's going to live here, you have to treat him like a brother." Prowl looked over to Firebolt, confused until he looked back and forth between the two for a breem. The colors were very similar as well as the build so it wasn't surprising that the two were carrier and creation.

Firebolt nodded, his head still dipped a bit in shame. He and Prowl had never really hit it off. They were paired up for Nightshade's class once but that was just strange for both of them. One had grown up with music and the other clearly had never heard music nor had seen the instruments. Despite Firebolt's obnoxious personality that matched his colors, Prowl didn't mind the youngling since Firebolt seemed very indifferent towards Prowl, which Prowl truly appreciated since the other younglings picked on him constantly behind Nightshade's back for screwing up a song or laughed at him for not knowing something that was obvious to even the youngest on the ship. Moonseeker released a vent of air and finally picked both of them up by their scruff bars and placing them on the floor. "Class starts soon, both of you. You two go get some energon and then head downstairs, all right? I have to get some of Prowl's files filled out." The two nodded and began to move towards the door. "Oh, and Firebolt?" The con turned to his carrier. "Take care of him," she urged pleadingly.

The little con smiled his usual innocent grin to her. "Of course, carrier!"

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><p><strong>AN: **Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Sorry it took so long to write but I'd like to thank cmdrtekk for your review. It really does help and I had your review in mind when writing this so hopefully a picture is more clear for you guys. Had some writer's block in the middle of writing this (basically paused for awhile once Moonseeker came into the medbay to get Prowl) but it's done now. =) Reviews would be great! Oh and I want your opinions on this: 1. More Prowl youngling scenes for awhile or skip to Prowl being the equivalent of a young adult or teenager? 2. Should I include a flashback scene at some point of the fire or no?  
>I'm not asking you guys these because I don't have an opinion myself. I just want to know what you guys like so farwant to see more of etc.


	5. Chapter 5: Brother

**A/N:** Wow... I'm procrastinating so much on things I need to do.. More updates though so.. yay! Please answer the questions from the last author's note as well! It would really be helpful to me =)

/.../=com link

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><p>The door swished closed and Moonseeker shook her head, comming some of her friends to check on Firebolt periodically in case he started trouble. When alerting Roller, she received a laugh in response. You mean if he's being Firebolt?/

Moonseeker wasn't specifically pleased that her youngling had become known as the youngling prankster and troublemaker but she supposed he took after his creator, always the daredevil to the point of termination when he jumped into an attack with several cons that were trying to take over the ship stellar cycles ago. /I mean if he endangers his new brother in any way./

/New brother?/ Roller obviously hadn't found out who adopted Prowl since his confusion was legitimate. Once your sparkmate offlined, you couldn't have another sparkling so it would be logical for him to be confused.

/I decided to adopt Prowl and I need to make sure Firebolt doesn't hurt him so could you please just keep your optics open?/

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><p>Firebolt guided Prowl to the energon station. He noted that some of his friends were grouped near the station, laughing and keeping their bodies close as they seemed to be hiding something. "Can you stay here for a klick? I just wanna go say hi to my friends real quick." Prowl nodded, not wanting to be a pest to his new brother. Firebolt ran over to his friends while Prowl climbed up onto a chair to wait. "Hey, guys, what's up?" By the smile on his faceplates, it was obvious he wanted in.<p>

The group looked around at each other uncertainly. Confused, Firebolt asked them in a hushed voice what they were planning. Everyone in their group trusted him so he wasn't sure why they wouldn't talk to him. "All right. It's just a little prank but I guess it would be better if you helped us out," Crosshatch reasoned out loud for the group who shrugged and nodded. The youngling pulled his servo out from behind his back to reveal a cube of energon. "We triggered this energon cube so that it will spill when you go to drink it. The problem is getting it to our next victim without him suspecting."

"Well, who is it? I'm sure I could get it to him." Crosshatch's optics lifted to look over at Prowl who was bored and looking over the railing nearby to look at the lower floors. Firebolt frowned. "Guys-"

"Don't tell me you're gonna let this prank go to waste just 'cause your carrier said you have to be nice to him," Crosshatch revved quietly. Firebolt looked over at him in confusion. "We heard some of the others talking about how she was adopting Prowl. I guess it's true then since you two are obviously better friends than you are with us."

Firebolt frowned. "That's not true! Just because-"

"Then do the prank," Crosshatch challenged, shoving the cube into Firebolt's servo. Staring at the blue low-grade uncertainly, Firebolt reluctantly turned toward the station to grab another cube and flew up to place them on the table then took his seat across from Prowl who thanked him. They both grabbed their own cubes and tipped back their cubes. _SPLOOSH_ Prowl's optics widened behind his visor as he noticed Firebolt had apparently missed his mouth entirely, coating him in energon.

Twittering and groans of disappointment met Prowl's audio receptors and he looked over to Firebolt's friends. He then turned his attention back to Firebolt who was smiling at him. "I should probably head back to my quarters so I can get washed up before class. Do you mind grabbing me another cube of energon when you're done? I'll just drink it when we head downstairs." Prowl nodded and continued drinking his cube as Firebolt ran back to their room.

When he climbed down after finishing to go get Firebolt his cube, the group of younglings walked over, looking very displeased. Crosshatch was the first to start trouble, shoving Prowl against the station. "That prank was meant for you, you glitch," he revved. Even the other younglings looked a bit taken back at this anger, frowning or gasping as he used the word 'glitch'. That was a word only the grown-ups could use on each other but no one else.

Prowl was held to the station by Crosshatch who had a very strong grip. "I-I'm sorry. I didn't know," Prowl whimpered, trying to tear the servo from his neck.

Before the youngling could continue his bullying, a red mech's servo grabbed his scruff bar, making Crosshatch immediately let go in fear of getting caught. Prowl relaxed a bit as the youngling's servo detached from his neck. Prowl had seen the mech before with Evergreen when he followed them to the energon station. Roller handed Crosshatch off to a very apologetic mech who seemed to be the youngling's creator or guardian. Roller looked back down to the group of younglings. "Play nice, guys. Okay?" They nodded and, as soon as Roller had walked off, gave Prowl nasty looks and walked off.

When Prowl got back to his quarters, he noticed that the washroom's lights were on. He set the cube on the desk and walked over and put his servo on the door and tried to drag the door open. It swished open and Prowl walked up to Moonseeker who was grumbling to Firebolt about being so troublesome. Firebolt looked over the counter, greeting Prowl but was shoved back into the water and bubbles. "Would you get back so I can finish washing you," Moonseeker laughed, making her creation complain as she switched the high-pressure hose to a cold temperature for being a nuisance. She looked over to Prowl who was laughing as his brother's complaints. "What are you giggling about," she asked, squirting him with some freezing water. He squealed and giggled again, grabbing one of the small towels that he assumed belonged to Firebolt and dried his head then folded them again.

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><p>"Run, Prowl, run," Firebolt yelled, both running late for class. They finally made it to the first floor where the others were already putting instruments away to get ready to sing. Nightshade looked up from helping a youngling when he heard two sets of cooling fans activated. "Sorry we're late, Nightshade. We-"<p>

He paused when Nightshade held a servo up to stop him. "It's fine. Roller told me about what happened."

Firebolt stared at him in confusion. "He did? I didn't see him around…"

Nightshade nodded. "He told me that he broke up the fight." The youngling looked up at his teacher like he has lost it. Nightshade just paused and shook his head. "We need to continue class. I'm sure you and Prowl can piece the story together later." He motioned everyone towards the piano. They began with scales and he began to teach them a song that they would be singing at the next concert. As they continued learning the song, Nightshade motioned for them to stop halfway through and looked over to the one youngling who wasn't just nervous; he was actually doing his best to hide behind the others.

Most of the younglings grew upset with Prowl now. This wasn't a practice song. They would be singing for the whole ship and Prowl was causing them to slow their progress. Prowl shrank back more as the others glared at him. "Prowl, would you mind moving closer to me?" That was the last thing Prowl wanted to do! He would much rather run to the medbay or to Moonseeker. Unfortunately, with the others surrounding him, he slowly approached the piano. "How about you sing a scale," Nightshade suggested, playing a note for Prowl to start with. With Prowl not really responding, Nightshade played a part of the scale going: "La la la la la la la," as he went then motioned for Prowl to join him.

Prowl's voice was weak at first, especially with the very low registers they started off with. Of course, his unsupportive audience wasn't exactly reassuring. Prowl was cringing at his own voice, nothing compared to that of his teacher. Once the last one was played, Nightshade smiled lightly at him. "That was very good. If anything, at least you have a pretty good range that will only grow with age. I want you up here from now on so I can hear you, okay? Don't be afraid to be loud either. You can never be too loud." Prowl only nodded, wanting to just hide in the group again but stood there under Nightshade's watch.

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><p>Moonseeker looked up from her desk as her two younglings walked in. She raised an optic ridge at how quiet the two were. Prowl was understandably quiet but Firebolt was never quiet. If something went wrong, she knew. If something went wrong, she knew. If nothing even happened, she knew. However, there was not a sound from either of them as they walked in.<p>

Wheeling her chair over, to see what was troubling them, she gasped. The two were coated with oil and her answer to why neither was speaking was obvious from the duct tape over their mouths. Within a few breems, both were in the small tub. Warm water was first put on the duct tape then it was finally removed (not without much complaining from Firebolt). Firebolt quickly told his carrier the whole tale with outrageous gestures and increasing dramatics. "It started right after class. That's why we're late. Prowl wanted to go see Riffraff before we headed back so I figured nothing could be wrong with that. Then, we got jumped when my friends called us over. They duct taped our mouths closed and spilled oil all over us! When I see those goons again I'm gonna-"

"Not do anything," Moonseeker interrupted, getting a whine from her creation. "You don't get revenge. It will only encourage them, 'Bolt." He was about to complain again when Moonseeker placed the warm cloth on his head. "Wash up," she laughed, lightening the mood. Firebolt laughed and scrubbed some more oil off.

Prowl stared at the bubbles around him as Moonseeker washed him. He began to finally move as she went to wash his face. "Relax, sweetspark." She held him still as she carefully cleaned his face. He remained tense and she found out why when she reached for his visor and he gave a squeak. "I have to wash under you visor. I don't want it getting in your optics." Prowl still pulled back, bringing his own servos up to keep his visor on his faceplates. Instead of simply ripping it from his face like she very easily could, Moonseeker instead excused herself long enough to page Riffraff.

When she returned, she resumed washing Prowl like nothing had happened which only brought on confusion and caution from both of the younglings. Within a few breems, Riffraff came into the washracks, which caused Prowl to be both excited and extremely cautious. He stared curiously at his previous caretaker who spoke quietly to Moonseeker before turning back to Prowl. "Prowl, Moonseeker's right. You have to have underneath your visor washed." Prowl shook his head again, shrinking to the back of the tub, holding onto his visor. A thought crossed Riffraff's processor and quickly asked, "Prowl, do you need your visor? Did a medic give it to you?"

Prowl thought about this then nodded his head. "It helps me see better."

Riffraff looked over to Moonseeker. "If he needs it to aid his vision and we take it away, it will make him feel defenseless." He turned back to Prowl. "Prowl, do you think any of us would hurt you?" Prowl looked at everyone then shook his head. "Then you don't need to worry about taking your visor off, right?"

Prowl frowned still. "It hurts my head if I take it off."

Riffraff guessed it would hurt his processor with everything either blurred or split into different images if they were cracked. "Close your optics, then." Prowl looked at his uncertainly. "Have I ever steered you wrong?" Prowl looked down then back up to him. He closed his eyes and his visor dimmed. Riffraff disconnected the visor and frowned. "Primus. They didn't even clean under here after the fire," he mumbled mostly to himself as he quickly took a washcloth to the ashes, soot, and oil. Prowl gave distressed clicks as the cloth drifted over his closed optics. Finally, the area was washed and Riffraff moved to put the visor back in place.

Bidding the four a goodnight, he returned back to the medbay while Moonseeker got the two ready for recharge. When she brought them to the berth, Prowl's visor lit up a bit more when he saw a yellow blanket now laying next to the red one. Firebolt grabbed his red blanket and his orange pillow and lied down closer to the wall. Prowl lied down next to him. Moonseeker kissed both of them on the tops of their heads and dimmed the lights to their second lowest setting as she sat down and read some datapads. Prowl watched her from the top berth, one question on his processor.

After a few joors, Moonseeker walked over to her own berth but her optics were caught by the still half-lit visor. "Prowl," she asked very quietly, unsure if he was asleep since she never had dealt with anyone with a visor. The youngling moved a bit to let her know he was listening. "Prowl, you should be in recharge by now." She came closer to the youngling and ran her digits over his head.

"Moonseeker," he asked quietly, gaining her attention quickly. "What's a glitch?" If she hadn't been trained on how to care for younglings, she might have crashed right there.

"I'm sorry. What did you say," she asked, making sure she heard him right, not believing her audio receptors.

"What's a glitch," he asked again, now seeming more awake as he slowly sat up.

She looked down, trying to think of what to say before finally reconnecting optics with him. "It's not anything for you to worry about, Prowl. It's a word older mechs and femmes use." She paused as Prowl shook his head.

"Crosshatch called me one. He's not any older than me," he protested, his voice raising. He calmed down a bit when Moonseeker put a digit to her mouthplates then pointed to Firebolt who was snoring softly.

"Crosshatch shouldn't be using that language." She vented softly. Prowl needed to know what he was being called. "It's a word that means someone who has something wrong with their processor. There are some mechs and femmes who do have something wrong with their processors but not you, Prowl. You certainly don't. Just don't use that word, okay? Crosshatch is a bad youngling and shouldn't being using that word to describe you." She thought for a klick. "Wait. Did he call you that when he taped and oiled you guys?"

Prowl shook his head. "He wasn't with them. He was with them earlier though until his creator took him away when he tried to beat me up."

Moonseeker's optics went big and she quickly brought her servo to the side of Prowl's faceplate. "He didn't hurt you did he?" Prowl shook his head. Moonseeker let out a quiet but long vent of air. "Why don't you get some recharge, Prowl? I'll be right back." Prowl frowned and moved to follow her. "Don't worry, sweetspark," she cooed, trying to make him lay back down. "The only monster in here is Firebolt and he's on your side now," she smiled and Prowl looked over to Firebolt with a small smile and nodded, lying back down as he finally fell into recharge.

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><p><strong>AN:** Like something? Hate something? Let me know! Review please! =)


	6. Chapter 6: The Council

**A/N:**Admittedly, not my favorite chapter to write. I rewrote this three times and decided on this one so hopefully you guys will like it as well!

breem- Cybertronian measurement of time, roughly equivalent to 8.3 Earth minutes

orn- defined as being equivalent to "one Cybertronian lunar day"; roughly equivalent to 13 Earth days

Klick- 1.2 minutes

Metacycle- 13 months

::blahblahblah:: = speaking through a bond

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><p>"Run, Prowl, run," Firebolt yelled. Prowl smiled a bit. Hadn't they been in this situation before? Only one metacycle ago, they had been racing down these stairs to get to the main floor: the day they met. Since then the two were nearly inseparable. Firebolt had been able to break through Prowl's shell after awhile and the two had become as close as any siblings on the ship. Late night chats and helping each other with songs only strengthened their relationship.<p>

Prowl had eventually told his brother, orns after the incident, about what Crosshatch had called him and how he had been roughed up. That seemed to be the last straw for the little loud mouth and he ran up to Crosshatch, starting a small fight that was soon broken up by the adults. Ever since then, Firebolt began to spend more time with Prowl and less with his old friends. There was no disappointment in this fact shown, however, since Firebolt proudly said, "I work better alone anyways."

Just because Prowl was as well behaved as could be, didn't mean Firebolt wouldn't get him in trouble constantly, just by being in the area of a prank. Moonseeker was the only one who could see through the lie of Prowl being involved since Prowl was normally in a hiding place that Firebolt had used in the past. Despite Firebolt's constant ratting out on Prowl, their relationship never truly faltered since Prowl had adapted to his troublemaking sibling's ways.

Currently, the two younglings were running down the stairs for the concert. They were first to perform, being in the youngest group, so if they were late there was no telling the trouble they'd get in. Lucky for them, there seemed to be some malfunction with the piano currently so they were able to sneak into the group. Mixtape, one of their few friends, giggled as they approached since their cooling fans were still activated. Mixtape was a quiet little con that had a sweet little voice. Prowl had befriended her because both of them shared the trait of being really quiet, so they were brought to the front of the class nearly every time.

"Oh, shut up, Mixtape," Firebolt laughed, taking his place in the middle of the group. His old friends, and now possibly enemies, surrounded him in this place but he could care less, his focus only on his crowd. Prowl's optics were more focused on his own friends, few as they may be, since staring at the crowd would only make his spark beat faster than it already was. His optics looked up and, despite many friendly faces found, he began to tremble a bit. A servo on his shoulder made him jolt. "Prowl, you'll be fine," Firebolt soothed. He would normally laugh it off, but he hated seeing his brother this troubled by something he was excited about.

Nightshade moved to the front of the class and bent down to talk to them. "Good luck, guys. I know you'll do great," he whispered, looking at every one of them. He then stood more up front, getting the crowd to quiet down. "Everyone, I welcome you to our concert. I can honestly say that this class behind me is destined for great things." He glanced over to Prowl and Mixtape. "Even the quiet ones have something special to add. Whether my class sees it or not, they have greatly improved since when I first met them. Their range is fantastic as well as their sound, especially for younglings. So, I hope you enjoy their music as much as I have."

A round of applause was given and some shouts for certain younglings were heard. Prowl looked up at the shout of his name to see a bunch of mechs and femmes on the third level, the level of the medbay, cheering him on. He wasn't sure if that was helping him or hurting him but his attention went back to his teacher who was drawing his servos up to conduct.

Their first song was called "ABC". It was very simple but the solos were what Prowl feared the most. He was to sing the main solo all the way through but it was changed to a duet so Firebolt could put his confidence in to help Prowl. The song went pretty well despite Prowl's lack of volume or confidence. Singing with Firebolt made him calm down a bit more and the applause that they got at the end put a small smile on his faceplates. He looked up at Nightshade who had walked off to the side so the group could get the applause they deserved.

He returned to the center and announced the next song, which was a bit of a lullaby. Mixtape led the song by herself, something Prowl dreaded should he be in her place and he noticed Mixtape was dreading the song as well. Her servos were clenched into tiny little fists as she looked around with wide optics as Nightshade spoke about the song: "In My Room". Prowl leaned closer to her and whispered, "You okay?" She shook her head, looking like she was about to cry. Prowl reached for her clenched fist and opened it, holding onto the servo with his own. Mixtape looked down at their servos and relaxed a bit. She smiled at him and both looked up at their teacher who was about to conduct again.

Throughout the four other songs, the two younglings remained holding onto each other's servo, both needing it as they looked up at the intimidating audience. Finally, their part was over and the younglings scurried to their creators, carriers, or guardians. Mixtape gave Prowl a quick hug and a hurried, "Thank you," before running to her creator and carrier who were telling her how wonderful she was. Prowl ran to catch up to Firebolt who was running to the second floor: where their carrier was. Prowl had taken to calling Moonseeker his carrier since his was no longer online and she was as much a carrier to him as his own was.

The decepticon's wings were held high as she saw the two running towards her. "You two were great," she exclaimed, hugging them both to her.

Firebolt soon put up a struggle. "C'mon, carrier, not with everyone watching," he whined, trying to work his way out of the hug while Prowl just giggled, watching his sibling struggle to escape.

"And let the best singers on this ship not receive a proper congratulations? I would never," she laughed, much to Firebolt's dismay. She soon broke the hug and Firebolt ran to escape before another hug could start. Moonseeker just smiled and shook her head, wandering over to the railing with her youngling. "Prowl," she said gently, making him look up. "That was very nice what you did for Mixtape." Prowl immediately looked down at his pedes, a bit embarrassed that everyone noticed. If his carrier noticed it, the rest of the crowd probably did as well. Moonseeker shook her head. "I'll never understand the pride that some of you younglings have," she mumbled, walking back over to the railing with her other youngling.

Halfway through the concert, a group went to the middle and announced they would be performing an art known as magic. Prowl and Firebolt looked down at the scene excitedly since it was something they both had never heard of. A mech made a femme disappear after placing a blanket on her, they did a lot of acrobatics, and several other things. They announced a grand finale would begin momentarily and Firebolt grabbed onto Prowl and pulled him to the seats surrounding the bottom floor. They shared an adult seat in the very first row. The grand finale began when the lights began to dim. Everyone grew restless and excited now as the main performer said some chant thing and finally motioned his servos upwards.

The autobot had made a replica of himself out of flames but it was about ten times larger than he was, making it up to the fourth floor. Firebolt grinned like a madmech, his ruby optics drinking in the beautiful flames. Prowl was quite the opposite as he hid his optics and tried to melt into the chair. Remembering this was just a show, Prowl glanced up and found the flames nearly enveloping their seat. A flame shot out at Prowl's arm and he gave a scream and curled up more so, feeling the hot flames nearby. Firebolt's enthusiasm was dropped as he heard his brother scream. The magician stopped his act quickly at the sound. Hoping he didn't harm anyone, he walked over to the trembling youngling in the first row. Everyone remained silent, looking over at the younglings, one trying to suppress his cries and the other not seeming to know what to do.

Riffraff's voice was easily heard in the silence as he butted his way through people with Moonseeker right behind him as they got to the lowest floor. The magician was trying to comfort Prowl but having the mech that made those flames so close to him only upset him further. Prowl finally peeked out when he saw Riffraff and Moonseeker shooing the magician away from the terrified youngling. Riffraff bent down next to the chair and noticed Prowl cradling his arm. "Prowl, can I see your arm?"

The youngling shook his head, lubricant leaking from his optics. "It hurts," he mumbled, not liking the silence.

Riffraff frowned and looked over to Nightshade who was looking from his place at the piano, obviously worried. He motioned for him to continue the concert and Nightshade nodded uncertainly. Only half of the audience returned their attention to the performances while the rest stared at the youngling who was now being carefully picked up by the medic and brought to the third floor.

The medbay was empty but soon filled up with some of the medical staff who were ready to help. Prowl was set down on a medical table as Dasher prepared a needle of something which made Prowl click and whirr, using his good servo to drag himself away from the mech. Riffraff had left his side to get some tools in the storage room and nearly dropped the supplies when he heard Prowl twittering and clicking in distress. He ran back into the room and set down the crates. Moonseeker was trying to hold the distressed bot still while Dasher was looking very hesitant on approaching. "Dasher?" The assistant looked over to his superior who held out his servo for the needle. Dasher handed it over, wanting to get away from the fragged off youngling as soon as possible.

Ignoring who it was who had the needle, Prowl still did his best to draw away from the medical staff. Riffraff quickly grabbed the youngling who squeaked in surprise, not used to the medic being so forceful with him. Riffraff jabbed the needle into a neck cable and the fluid drained from the cylinder into the youngling. Prowl gave a scream at the pain of the needle but his scream died halfway through and faded until the youngling was in stasis. The medical team worked quickly with removing the melted armor, repairing it, and repairing the burned wires underneath.

* * *

><p>Prowl awoke the next orn, still in the medbay, which now seemed much scarier than he remembered. He sat up carefully, his arm still trying to activate the new wires. He looked around the medbay and found Riffraff recharging in a chair, not looking too comfortable with his odd position. He stayed nearby though, wanting to be able to help the youngling if he needed to. Prowl looked over to the others who were looking over at him and pointing him out to Dasher approached, cautios of the youngling's mood. "How ya doin', little buddy?"<p>

"Okay… Where's Moonseeker and Firebolt," he asked, thinking he would be back in his berth by now with Firebolt.

Dasher frowned, seeming cornered by the question. "Well, bud. We're gonna keep you here for a bit."

Prowl tilted his head. The medic was avoiding his question but he followed the conversation. "Why? I feel okay."

Dasher looked uncertainly to another medic who just shrugged and nodded her head to Riffraff. Dasher woke him quickly and pointed to Prowl, explaining his question. Prowl was beginning to get annoyed with everyone avoiding his questions and Riffraff finally tried to speak, wording the situation the best he could. "Prowl, you got burned while Moonseeker was supposed to be watching you… She's being questioned right now by our leader and the Grand Council for neglect."

Prowl's optics widened. "But it wasn't her fault!"

Riffraff frowned. "I know that, Prowl, but they-"

"I have to go tell them," he revved. He started to climb down but was snatched up by Riffraff, causing him to go into a twittering fit. He calmed down when he noticed they were moving out the door. "Where are we going?"

"To your guardian. If anyone has a strong opinion on this, it's probably you," he replied with a soft grin. Prowl perked up and looked around as they went up a flight of stairs to the fourth floor. The only time Prowl had been on this floor was to get back to the fifth floor or come down from the fifth floor. Apparently, this was where the Grand Council was located since Riffraff began walking through the hallways, which eventually led to a very high-tech looking door. Riffraff placed a digit on a button that was located just outside.

"Yes?"

"Riffraff requesting an appearance for Prowl in case number 8946."

There was a pause before the speaker, a femme, finally replied, "You may enter." The door then began to make several loud noises as locks were taken off and gears turned, opening the door for the two. Prowl's spark beat was loud in his audio receptors as he shrank back into Riffraff's arms. Prowl's fear was for a reason. The Grand Council, a group of about fifty or so sitting in rows that extended into the ceiling until they looked no bigger than Prowl's digits, were staring at the medic and youngling. The voice that spoke to them through the door now spoke to them again from the very center of the council. "Would he like to speak," she asked. Her voice was calm, nearly monotone, but was surprisingly gentle towards the youngling who was quivering before the large amount of bots and cons.

Moonseeker was seated in a chair at the center of the room and she now turned to look at Prowl. Prowl perked up a bit at seeing her, drawing his faceplates from Riffraff. The medic put him down and he immediately ran to her, clinging to her leg. Moonseeker froze, looking questioningly up at the council. The femme who had spoken before, seemingly the leader, gave a nod. Moonseeker picked up the youngling and cradled him to her. "Prowl," the leader asked, gaining the bot's attention. "What have you come here to say?"

Prowl looked up at Moonseeker. Would they really take her away from him? He looked back over to the femme who seemed more patient than her coworkers who were mumbling about getting the youngling out of the room. "Don't take her away. It was my fault. I sat too close to the magic guy. She didn't do anything wrong."

"But the fact she _didn't do anything_ is precisely the problem here," a mech growled from his place on the ground floor. Prowl stopped himself from curling into his guardian. He had to be brave. Struggling against her, he worked his way to the ground, surprising most of the room when he stood up to the harsh council member, who even his own fellows were scolding in a hushed whisper, claiming he was being too harsh on someone so young.

"She's done _everything_ for me. She took me when the medbay didn't want me. She got me to recharge and fuel when I didn't want to. She took me to the medbay when I got burned. I made her cry because of what happened before I came here and now I'm getting her in trouble. If you should be mad at anyone, be mad at me. 'Cause if you think she's a bad guardian then you don't know her," he replied confidently. His words only fired up the council member whose wings were twitching with every word spilling from the youngling's mouth.

"Hothead, calm yourself," the lead femme growled then returned her optics back to the youngling who seemed to be fighting to stay strong for his guardian. "Prowl, I know you like your guardian but she has failed to watch you and, as a result, you've gotten hurt. I can't allow-"

"I'm a youngling. I'm going to get hurt. Why can't you all just understand that," he interrupted, his voice so loud it was beginning to make his voice box fill with static. Not only was Prowl's interruption out of line, but also his maturity on the subject was surprising.

His maturity was so strange that it drew suspicion from many members of the council, some alerting their leader that Moonseeker may be supplying Prowl with answers. The chatter that filled the room halted at the raise of her hand. "Prowl, you sound as if you are repeating something. Whom are you quoting," she asked.

The youngling's anger dissipated immediately, confusion quickly filling his processor. Quoting? The room was waiting for a response so he simply replied, "I-I don't know." Many shouts rang out including the words liar, brig, and punishment. At hearing the harsh words the youngling looked around frantically, backing up towards the only two he trusted in that room.

Riffraff now stepped forward and the leader called for silence again. "Crystalsky," he started, speaking to the leader, "I don't expect you nor anyone else in this room to know much information regarding the way a youngling's processor works. Prowl may have repeated this phrase, but he may have heard it long ago," his optics moved to Prowl, "in a fight, perhaps? Maybe one between previous caretakers?"

Prowl looked down, trying to think of where he heard that phrase before. If he didn't think of it, they might think Moonseeker was only using him. He thought back to his creator and carrier fighting. They rarely did but because of this rarity, Prowl was able to remember what most of the fights were about. His carrier had lost track of him in his younger orns and that led to a fight and he frowned at the memory. Tearing away from the memory, he looked up at Riffraff who was watching him carefully. "My carrier lost me one orn and I got hurt and her and Creator fought and-and that's what she said to him," he stuttered out, telling Riffraff but then turned his head to Crystalsky, remembering she was the head of this council.

She held her digits to her mouth, thinking over this information. "Do you sincerely mean those words that you quoted, then?"

Prowl nodded. "Everyone gets hurt. I just got hurt worse," he explained, looked down at his fixed arm. "Riffraff fixed it though, so it's okay."

Sounding much more like a youngling, the group seemed to now hold a bit of sympathy towards Prowl. A few whispered about letting the guardian go. The majority was against this but word spread and mechs and femmes were being convinced that Moonseeker wasn't a bad caretaker. Besides, most felt guilty taking her away from her own creation as well for just an accident. Once words had been shared around the room, Crystalsky finally dismissed the charges with apologies and a warning to keep a close watch on the two younglings. Moonseeker nodded and scooped up Prowl, walking swiftly toward the exit. It was obvious the femme wanted to get out of there before they could reconsider.

Moonseeker now looked frantically for her other youngling. Opening their bond, she called for him. ::Firebolt? Tell me where you are, sweetspark.::

She received an excited wave of energy back, something she always loved about their sparkbond. She was soothing but he always gave her a bit of a jolt. ::Carrier! I thought-… I thought they-:: He cut off the message but fear and sorrow was sent over the bond, making Moonseeker grimace.

::Just let me know where you are 'Bolt,:: she replied, sending comforting pulses through the bond.

Within a few breems, Prowl gave a smile as he spotted his brother sitting at the fifth level's energon station with Mixtape and her creator. Moonseeker set Prowl on an empty chair at the table while she thanked the mech for watching Firebolt in her absence. "It's really no problem, Moonseeker. I'm just glad you and Prowl are okay." She nodded and the five chatted for a bit until class time. The brothers returned to their quarters and were put into berth early. Firebolt gave small, half-sparked complaints about the early recharge time but both were recharging within the next few breems. Despite the relief of them being in recharge early, Moonseeker was very wrong if she assumed this was going to be an easy night.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Cliffhanger~ This isn't my strongest chapter. It's more just here for a link between the last chapter and the next one. Review, please! Constructive Criticism would be awesome too! =)


	7. Chapter 7: Nightmares

**A/N: WARNING** this part of the story involves nightmares of Prowl and Firebolt. Firebolt's is a little graphic (a bit of gore) but keep in mind these are dreams. No mechs or femmes were harmed in the making of this chapter ;)

Megacycle- Cybertronian measurement of time, roughly equivalent to one Earth hour

Breem- Cybertronian measurement of time, roughly equivalent to 8.3 Earth minutes

Klick- 1.2 minutes

* * *

><p>Firebolt, usually the heavy recharger, began to toss and turn in the berth. He gave small whimpers of displeasure at his unfolding dream. <em>"Take her away," someone shouted, shoving Moonseeker to another guard. Firebolt tried screaming but his voice was lost. He needed to get to her. He reached out to grab her but Moonseeker jolted back. He was confused and called out for her again, his words finally escaping but it was too late. Moonseeker held her servo to her spark and her energon began to run down her chassis. The little con's optics widened and he screamed for her over and over, lubricant running down his faceplates. Then everything went black and the dream repeated.<em>

Moonseeker immediately onlined her optics when she heard Firebolt mumbling her name. She climbed out of her berth, still half in recharge. Her processor fully activated once she saw her youngling, tossing and turning in his recharge with a pained expression "Firebolt," she called gently, trying to shake her youngling out of recharge but it only seemed to worsen the images since he let out a small squeak in response. She went to wake Prowl so he wouldn't become distressed while they went to the medbay. Prowl, however, was battling his own demons in recharge.

_Fire in the shape of that magician chased the little bot through the Ark IV. He called for help but no one was listening. They either laughed or called him silly or they just ignored him entirely. Lubricant fell from his optics as he continued his search for anyone who would protect him from this monster. Prowl ran to the medbay. They wouldn't ignore him. They never did. If anything, they gave him more attention than he wanted. The door swished open and Prowl ran to Riffraff who was recharging in his chair as usual. Prowl ran over to him, shaking him and yelling at his top volume. Riffraff wouldn't budge though and now Prowl was trapped in the medbay by the monster who was melting the door. Now going for a more silent method, Prowl ran to the backroom that he used to recharge in and dived under the berth, hiding himself behind the crates under there. Soon, however, the entire room was on fire and the servo of the fiery beast grabbed Prowl and the searing flames melted his plating as the youngling screamed. Then he blacked out and awoke again on the ground floor of the Ark IV and the magician appeared again, restarting the nightmare._

As Prowl dreamed this and Firebolt dreamed his own dream, they were on their way to the medbay, held in their carrier's protective arms. Despite only having a megacycle of recharge, Moonseeker had lost all thoughts of recharge as her younglings twitched and whimpered in their recharge. She knocked on the medbay doors with her pede, her servos occupied by the younglings, and waited for the reply, which quickly came. There were always at least two medics on staff and, unfortunately, that's all that were on staff right now. They were young too so it was likely Riffraff was seeing how well they could do on their own for the night shift. Injuries at night usually only consisted of overcharged mechs or femmes stumbling and hurting a joint or beating each other up.

This was an entirely different case for the two young medics who put the two younglings on the table. One looked to the other with a frown. "We should call someone higher up. This has to do with the processor, not a dent or scrape." The other medic nodded reluctantly and commed Riffraff, Dasher, and Razorclip. Dasher was the superior of these two but Riffraff was everyone's superior. Razorclip usually did best with processor material so it was no surprise to Moonseeker when the femme autobot appeared in the medbay. Razorclip seemed chipper compared to the other two who just walked in. Both looked ready to collapse or beat the two younger medics, who explained the situation hurriedly so the three could get to work.

The first method used was what Moonseeker had already done, trying to simply wake them. That, as predicted, didn't work. Next, they scanned both processors to see how deep in recharge they were. By Razorclip's reaction, they were almost in stasis lock at this point, which did nothing to calm Moonseeker. Riffraff vented and finally went to get the strongest treatment they had. He hated having to use it on younglings. It was necessary at this point, however, since the two would either crash, be in stasis lock, or they might be caught in their nightmares forever. The trouble with this procedure was the many possibilities in it going wrong simply by the poor connection of one wire but some of the best medics were helping out here and Riffraff decided to take the risk.

Razorclip and Dasher hooked up many clips and wires to the younglings, making Moonseeker want to crash with the sight of her younglings looking so helpless and tangled in wires. Riffraff sat down at the main computer as he waited for them to give him the okay. Razorclip lifted her head from working on Firebolt. "He's ready. Go ahead." Switches and buttons were pressed, blowing the two interns' minds as they watched their superior work quickly with the complicated technology. The screen lit up to reveal a room that was gray and empty save for a few doorways. It wasn't complicated, not surprising for a youngling's dreams.

Dasher walked away from Prowl who was set up but the focus was currently on Firebolt. He walked over to some of the other buttons and held a digit to his mouth, signaling for everyone to remain silent. Riffraff grabbed a microphone and some controls, similar to the game chips that some of the entertainment rooms had. He guided the camera and spotted Firebolt who was on the floor crying. Riffraff moved a bar down and looked over to Razorclip and Dasher. "I think it just ended but if my guess is correct, we should be seeing a replay of this which is why he isn't waking right now." The two nodded and seemed they already know this but Riffraff was saying it more for Moonseeker's benefit so she wasn't completely lost on what was happening.

Riffraff moved the bar back to its original location. The screen turned black and Riffraff used this opportunity to put a drop of his own energon on a small tile and slid it into the computer. Riffraff's identification material appeared on the screen and he got out of his chair, holding his arms out as the computer made a scan of him. He then sat back down, controlling his player who was now him as the nightmare restarted. Firebolt seemed fine now, looking for Moonseeker who quickly formed while his optics were elsewhere. Some strange creature made of just black wisps and seemed to be in the shape of a mech shouted, "Take her away!" Meanwhile Riffraff watched carefully as Firebolt opened his mouth to scream for her and reached out to move but was held back by another strange black creature.

Moving the character up to Firebolt, the Riffraff on screen reached down and pulled the weird creature off of Firebolt who immediately ran for Moonseeker, who was about to be stabbed. Riffraff looked over to the soldier who held a blade in one servo and Moonseeker in the other. Rushing forward, he tried to stop the weird creature from killing Moonseeker but by the time he reached her, it was too late and Firebolt screamed again and the screen went black. He turned the bar down again and huffed. Dasher walked over. "You just use your voice. I'll control the bug," he stated, moving his own chair over and stealing the controls.

It was honestly like playing a game chip but this wasn't for fun. It was to prevent a youngling for going into stasis lock. Riffraff stopped for a klick and looked over to Moonseeker who was holding onto one of Firebolt's servos, feeling helpless as she tried to calm him. "Moonseeker, come here for a klick, won't you?" She reluctantly released Firebolt's servo and Riffraff guided her in front of the scanning device. Dasher, following Riffraff's way of thinking, took out the current bug and helped Riffraff to create the new bug of Moonseeker. "We might be able to trick his nightmare. It might work, and it might not but we've got to try." They directed her to the microphone just as the screen was lighting up again. The bar was still positioned low. "This might be our last shot for Firebolt," Riffraff explained. "We need to give Prowl a chance too." Moonseeker nodded, her optics not meeting him as he was telling her that this was her only chance to save her creation. "Just talk to him so that the one who is being stabbed isn't his carrier in his mind. You are."

She nodded again and he turned up the bar and pointed at her to speak to him. Dasher found the brightly colored sparkling already silently screaming for his carrier with outstretched servos. Dasher pulled the same move Riffraff had done but now it was Moonseeker saving her youngling, not the medic. "I've got you, 'Bolt. I've got you," she said quickly, trying to calm her youngling who was still looking horrified, not sure which Moonseeker was real since the other one was being stabbed right now and screaming for her creation. Firebolt looked over to her but Dasher reached out Moonseeker's servo to direct him back to them. "Sweetspark, that one is fake. You're just in a nightmare right now. I'm in the medbay with you right now, just wake up, 'Bolt. It'll be okay," she cooed lightly and the game went black, making Moonseeker's spark give a jump. "What happened? I thought I had him," she exclaimed, leaping to her pedes.

A movement in the side of her vision caught her attention and she smiled at seeing Firebolt groggily onlining while the medics were disconnecting his cables. "Let's see what Prowl's situation is so we know who to throw in." The screen lit up with the second floor containing all the tables, chairs and lights it always had, something more creative and in more detail than Firebolt's dream. "What is going on here," Riffraff mumbled to himself, taking over the controls as they just tried to search for Prowl in the charred mess that was the first three levels. The screen went black, signaling Prowl likely died or his biggest fear ended his dream. "I'm just going to throw myself in and see what that does," he decided. "I don't want him reliving this too many times because I know he'll crash."

Once the digital Riffraff was made he walked to the medbay. "You think he'll be in there," Dasher asked, looking uncertainly at his superior.

"If he wanted me, where would I be," he asked in return and smiled as his suspicion was confirmed by seeing his clone recharging in a chair.

"See, 'Raff, I told you that you need a vacation. Prowl even pictures you recharging in the medbay," Dasher laughed. Riffraff just shook his head, throwing his clone behind some crates and taking the same position as the other had on the chair.

Within less than a breem, the door swished open and then closed. Prowl ran over to him and shook him just as he had done in the other dreams. Riffraff woke instantly and Prowl quickly explained the huge fire monster chasing him. Trying to get him to believe this was just a dream like Moonseeker had to Firebolt, Riffraff explained, "Prowl, it's not real. This is just a dream."

This just made the bot give a cry of frustration and he went to run off when Riffraff grabbed him again. "No! That's what everyone else said but it's real and it's gonna burn me up," he cried, struggling to escape from Riffraff.

Riffraff held the kicking youngling to him and hid beneath the desk by the monitor. The door began to melt away and Prowl gave a cry, clinging to Riffraff now. "It will be all right, Prowl. I won't let it get you," he whispered to him. The screen went black then and Riffraff turned around to see Prowl waking up, looking a bit shaken and unsure of his surroundings but otherwise okay. "They should be fine now, Moonseeker. Just have a normal day tomorrow so they will be preoccupied and not think about their nightmares." She nodded and scooped up Prowl in her other arm while the other cradled a recharging Firebolt. Saying quick thanks to the medical team, she walked back to their quarters to get the two back into their berth. Prowl's optics stayed open until they were back in their quarters. Once he was safe in his berth, he fell into recharge where a black void of nothingness greeted him and he gratefully accepted it.


	8. Chapter 8: Sickness and Healing

**A/N:** Joor : About 6.5 Earth hours

Klick: 1.2 minutes

breem- _noun_: Cybertronian measurement of time, roughly equivalent to 8.3 Earth minutes

quartex- _noun_: Cybertronian measurement of time; equivalent in Earth measurement unknown, but is presumably very small (e.g., "These supplies won't even last us a quartex.")

Liebling= darling, favorite (a term of endearment)

_Who knows what miracles_

_You can achieve_

_When you believe_

_Somehow you will_

_You will when you believe_

There was a pause in the music for the leader of the youngling's part but the silence only continued, halting the piano accompaniment. Nightshade's optics settled on Firebolt who was supposed to start the next verse. The other younglings were already looking at the youngling who seemed very out of focus and in need of recharge.

"Firebolt," he called lightly, but received no reaction. Now a bit concerned, he went over to his student, who wearily looked up at his teacher as the sides of his faceplates were touched.

Nightshade frowned and picked up the youngling. "I'll be back in a klick, guys. Just work on your instruments for another megacycle and you guys can be dismissed."

He motioned for someone else to take his place and a femme quickly rushed in, trying to distract the others from their friend. "Let's get you to the medbay, 'Bolt," Nightshade mumbled comming Moonseeker to meet them there.

"Yep. He's got a virus all right. A pretty nasty one too," Razorclip frowned, rubbing the youngling's backplating as he gave small whirrs of discomfort. "I've installed a small antivirus software into his system. He should recover within a few orns. Just give him some low grade and let him recharge. Anything strenuous and the program won't function properly," she explained to Moonseeker who just nodded, looking worriedly at her youngling.

A mech entered the medbay then. "Um, Moonseeker. We have a problem with Prowl."

Moonseeker looked at the mech as if he had just grown two heads. "Prowl? But… he doesn't get in trouble unless Firebolt's with him," she reasoned, looking at Firebolt who was staring at the wall groggily.

"Well, he's been throwing a tantrum for a while. We've been trying to calm him down, but he's just getting madder."

Moonseeker looked back to the mech. "I have to get Firebolt to berth. I'll come get Prowl in a breem." He nodded with an uncertain, nervous smile and returned to Prowl who was being held at arm length from a mech.

"I can't take it anymore," a mech, that Prowl recognized as Hothead, snarled from a couch. He was turning down his audio receptors again as Prowl's screams reached an all-time high. The youngling was clawing his little digits into the servo of the mech who was holding him, trying to escape.

Whenever Prowl was set on the ground, however, he would throw a tantrum again and reached to be held. Hothead finally stood up and snatched Prowl from the mech. "Shut up, you little monster," he snarled, shaking the youngling.

The youngling quieted, but began to scrunch his faceplates up in discomfort before purging on the mech. Prowl was caught by a femme when Hothead dropped him with a mixed reaction of surprise and disgust. Prowl began to click and whine again, hugging the femme around the neck. His processor felt foggy and his whole body ached. His cries were only scattered now because of his lack of effort after purging on the scary mech.

Dasher approached the youngling. After hearing about the purging on Hothead, he quickly abandoned his energon and speeded over to the scene. He reached out his digits to the youngling who was staring at him groggily, his visor flickering. Trying to hold Prowl as still as possible, Dasher scanned the youngling and nodded, mumbling something like, "Just what I thought." The young medic reached into his subspace and took out a small computer chip.

Prowl gave a cry of pain that was likely only caused by discomfort as Dasher loaded the virus from the chip into Prowl. The youngling then heard Moonseeker's voice asking Dasher some questions and he made an effort to move, feeling his frame heating as he did. He was barely able to see her before faceplanting into Evergreen's arm again. Noticing her youngling's distress, his guardian took him from Evergreen and continued to speak with everyone around her.

With apologies and gratitude given, Moonseeker returned to her quarters. The only sign that Firebolt was awake was a small moan at the light that came in on their entrance. She set Prowl down beside Firebolt. He didn't move to get his blanket, his frame not only too hot but not having the energy. Looking over to Firebolt as he eased himself onto his pillow, he noticed his sibling had gone without a blanket as well. Before giving in to recharge, Prowl thought back on this morning.

Firebolt was lazily strumming his guitar that he got out early. "Who would have thought we would be here on time," Prowl laughed, toying with a piano.

His brother glanced up from his guitar. "And ahead of time too!" He paused, thinking this through. "Let's not make this a habit," he grimaced, not wanting to become a suck up.

Prowl just giggled, a bit and resumed playing with his instrument. The two continued in silence for a bit until Firebolt paused with his guitar, his strumming hand clenched.

"What's wrong, 'Bolt?" He shook his head and continued strumming away, leaving his sibling curious.

As class approached, Prowl noticed his brother getting a bit uncomfortable, his cooling fans activating. The other students were looking over to him, causing the con a great deal of embarrassment. Whenever Prowl asked him if he was okay, Firebolt nodded stiffly and refused to meet his visored optics.

When Nightshade had walked Firebolt to the medbay, Prowl now noticed a strange feeling in his circuits. Then there was a large discomfort in his tanks, making him clench his fists. He tried to dismiss these feelings as some of his friends called him over. The feelings of discomfort and heat began to consume his circuits until he fell into a quivering pile of circuits, where many mechs and femmes finally found him.

Firebolt onlined his optics and felt almost worse than before had he drifted off. Before he was able to call for her, Moonseeker was beside his berth. Prowl was lying next to him so 'Bolt assumed it to be late. "It turns out you have a nasty virus that Prowl contracted," she explained quietly, carefully picking up her overheated youngling.

A knock was heard at the door and Moonseeker opened it. Firebolt gave a moan at the light again, hiding his optics in his carrier's chest plating. "Jou paged me," a mech's voice questioned.

Firebolt peeked out at the familiar mech named Icescape. The mech was a friend of his creator's and had watched him often when he was younger. The autobot, noticing the youngling's ruby optics peeking out, gave a small smile. "I was wondering if you wouldn't mind taking Firebolt out of here for a bit? I just want him to cool down a bit and I think the cooler atmosphere might help."

Icescape now fully grinned. "Of course, Moon. I vould be honored," he beamed, scooping up the little con who shivered at the contact.

Despite his love for this caretaker, Firebolt didn't enjoy the mech's freezing plating. There were younglings who started rumors about Icescape. He was strict when it came to rules, which often butchered the younglings' fun, but he was nice to them and comforting when needed. So, Firebolt never understood the rumors started about Icescape being secretly a monster made out of ice or something ridiculous like that.

Icescape wanted to laugh a bit at Moonseeker saying the cooler air would do some good. He knew if he just held the overheated youngling, he could drop his temperature. It wasn't a surprise to him when Firebolt immediately moved towards his spark, the only warm part of him. Icescape carried the youngling to the fourth level to his office as head of intel. Firebolt muttered a firm, "No. Not there." In response to Icescape's optic ridge raising, he added, "Too cold."

He nodded in understanding. His office was about as cold as his frame was so he wouldn't be uncomfortable, so it was logical for this youngling to not want to be there.

Deciding to walk through the hallways of the Ark IV, Icescape eventually found himself in the fifth floor's "observatory". It really didn't aid in observing much, but it was a transparent ceiling, which allowed one to look out at the stars or whatever was above the ship.

Finding the room empty due to the late hour, Icescape decided to sit down on the couch with Firebolt who was waking up a bit more. "How are jou feeling, Liebling?"

Firebolt, normally embarrassed by any terms of endearment, only shrugged in response. He would have openly objected to anything, no matter what language, that made him sound all cute and cuddly. However, he was overheated and his circuits were aching with every movement. Besides that, no one was here to make him feel ashamed.

"Are jou excited avout jour new shell?" It was obvious Icescape was trying to get Firebolt to talk to him. For what purpose, Firebolt didn't know, but this was something all younglings were excited about.

Firebolt nodded a bit and lifted his head to look around, seeming to be checking to make sure no one was here. "Can ya keep a secret, Icey," he asked, resting his head on the officer's shoulder so he could look into his optics.

Smiling lightly at the affectionate version of his name, Icescape replied, "Firebolt, I am ze head of intel. I keep zecrets every day and jour's are more important to me zan any of zem." With the disbelieving look of the youngling, he added, "Vell, most of zem, anyvay."

Firebolt smiled a bit and seemed to consider this answer before asking, "Do ya promise?"

Icescape now frowned, seeming to be offended. "Cross my spark. Now, vat is on jour processor, my Liebling?"

"Well, about the third shell," he started uncertainly. Icescape gave him a nod, urging him to continue. "Well, I'm, um, just really scared about it. I-I mean, I know it's not supposed ta hurt but I like this shell and I heard that the third shell is really uncomfortable especially for flyers."

The more he spoke, the further he seemed to want to disappear into Icescape's side. Icescape frowned at these words. "Firebolt, eet ees going to be all vight. It vill only be strange for a quartex, but jou'll be getting a lot of upgrades vith it."

Firebolt hadn't heard of this part of information about the new shells before. "Like what?"

Seeing he had the youngling's attention, he continued. "Vell, jou von't tire as quickly when jou fly. Jou'll be able to fly longer and jou vill get flying lessons because of zat. Ze second enhancement is jour actual shell. Alzough it vill be uncomfortable because of it being bigger zan jou, jou vill quickly grow into it and zen jou vill be able to keep zat frame for ze rest of jour existence. Ze third, and ze most important on zis ship, ees ze selection of a new voice."

Firebolt's optics widened at the last one. "What's wrong with my voice now?"

"Nozzing, Firebolt. Jou vill just sound too young for jour new shell so jou can choose a lower, rougher voice or jou might just ask for a more mature version of jour own voice. Jou'll be nervous until zat day, but after the changes, jou vill be very happy; at least, I vas."

Firebolt rested his head back onto Icescape's shoulder. "You were scared? But you don't get scared of anything!"

Icescape smiled at him. "As far as jou know! Everyone gets scared sometimes. Even ze scariest mechs and femmes on zis ship are afraid of somezing. What jou're scared of ees completely normal. Eet's a huge change. Everyone is afraid of change. Some might just be using that nervous energy to seem excited zough."

Pausing as he thought through the third shell process, Icescape frowned. His creator had been with him through the whole process since he thought that it was better for a mech to be with him during such a huge change. Unfortunately, lying on his chassis was a youngling without a creator anymore. "Tell you vat, Firebolt. I'll come vith jou ven jou go to get jour shell."

This made the little con perk up significantly. "Really? You'll do that for me?"

Icescape smiled lightly. "Of course." The youngling then thanked him multiple times and eventually was interrupted by his tanks giving an odd noise. "Better get jou some low-grade. Hm?" The youngling chirped in agreement and snuggled back into Icescape as they journeyed to the energon station.

Icescape typed in the code to Moonseeker's quarters half a joor later. He entered quietly, thinking Prowl would be recharging. He was mistaken, however, when he heard Moonseeker's soft alto voice ringing through the room. Noticing the washroom's lights on dimly, Icescape sat down in Moonseeker's chair. Firebolt's optics fluttered and he finally closed them as he listened to his carrier's lullaby.

_You are my sunshine_

_My only sunshine._

_You make me happy_

_When skies are grey._

_You'll never know, dear,_

_How much I love you._

_Please don't take my sunshine away_

_The other night, dear,_

_As I lay sleeping_

_I dreamed I held you in my arms._

_When I awoke, dear,I was mistaken_

_And I hung my head and cried._

Icescape closed his optics, resting his cheek on Firebolt's head, as he thought back on his history with that song. Well, it was more like his best friends' history with it. The song had been the bonding song of Moonseeker and Quickstep, the first song they had sung to Firebolt, and the song that was sung at Quickstep's funeral. Icescape had sung this song to Moonseeker during her depression about her bonded's termination. Now, Moonseeker had used this song as a lullaby for her younglings, likely to remind herself and Firebolt that Quickstep was still in their memories.

_You are my sunshine,_

_My only sunshine._

_You make me happy_

_When skies are grey._

_You'll never know, dear,_

_How much I love you._

_Please don't take my sunshine away._

She then began to hum the rest of the song to herself while occasionally singing the chorus again. The sound of water was heard being poured, likely over Prowl since he wasn't in his berth. Icescape eventually found himself giving into recharge after ensuring his hold on Firebolt was strong.

**A/N: **Hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Also hoping you guys like Firebolt with how much I've thrown him into this chapter and how much he'll be in this later ^^' Reviews are loved!


	9. Chapter 9: The New Caretaker

**A/N: **Guten Morgen, Liebling= Good morning, darling/sweetie

Megacycle- Cybertronian measurement of time, roughly equivalent to one Earth hour

Orn- Cybertronian measurement of time, defined as being equivalent to "one Cybertronian lunar day"; roughly equivalent to 13 Earth days

Metacycle: 13 months

Breem- _noun_: Cybertronian measurement of time, roughly equivalent to 8.3 Earth minutes

Icescape onlined, his internal alarm waking him. He moved stiffly, moving to hold Firebolt to him again and quickly panicked, not finding the youngling in his arms. His optics shot open and he scrambled out of the chair, quickly looked around for Firebolt. He finally found Moonseeker who was smirking on the higher berth, her two younglings smiling a bit as they sat up to watch the scrambling officer.

"G'morning, Icey," Firebolt offered with a grin, noting his caretaker's agitation.

Icescape's agitation faded at Firebolt looking a bit better along with his mood. "_Guten Morgen_, Liebling." Said Icescape, with the few German words Firebolt knew, he at least knew those, but they only left Prowl confused. "How are jou two feeling?"

The two both shrugged in response. Moonseeker elaborated with, "They're a bit sluggish but are otherwise doing fine. Both purged earlier but they're doing okay now." The two looked down as she mentioned their problem earlier, seeming to have regained their pride at least.

Icescape nodded with a small smile tugging on the corners of his mouth. "Vell, I have to get ready for vork. Feel free to visit me if zey're up for it." With that, Icescape went to work and Moonseeker soon joined him to get the younglings some energon.

Prowl moved to grab his blanket, which he pulled over himself. He didn't really need it but it was more for comfort at this point. Firebolt followed his example and they settled back into their berth for a very boring day of recovery. "Hey 'Bolt, can I ask you a question?"

Noticing Prowl's uncertainty, Firebolt gave him his usual grin. "Sure."

Still a bit unsure, Prowl added, "Just… don't get mad, 'kay?"

Firebolt now propped his head up by hugging his pillow. "'Kay."

Prowl finally looked back up to his sibling. "What happened to your creator?" Firebolt frowned immediately, looking down. "You don't hafta tell me if you don't wanna," Prowl mumbled, pulling his arm out to hug his blanket while Firebolt remained quiet.

When Prowl was just about to change topics, Firebolt blurted out, "He was deactivated when our ship was attacked by the Elite Guard… They're the autobot leaders. Well, the ones in the war, anyway. Icey said that my creator was fighting to save me, I just don't remember that day too well. Carrier says I might have blocked it out. I do remember him though… He was really cool," he whispered, a sad smile coming to his faceplates.

Firebolt jumped when Prowl touched his shoulder. He hadn't realized he had spaced out for a few breems. "I miss mine too," Prowl replied, a smile on his faceplates as he tried to reassure his brother.

Firebolt frowned. He should have remembered that Prowl lost his creator and carrier. "How did they, um… that is-"

"A fire," Prowl replied. "I was in a sitting area of our house, close to the door. They were both in the kitchen. And," Prowl swallowed, "the fire started at kitchen door and they were trapped. I tried to get to 'em but they just.. They were trapped there and I tried to get them out but I just called the firefighters and had to wait there. They kept calling for me but I just couldn't get them. I tried to-"

He paused as Firebolt hugged him. He now noticed that he was shaking considerably. "It's okay, Prowler," he muttered. Not caring for the nicknamed but not wanting to tear away from his brother, Prowl remained quiet. He focused on calming down and he eventually stopped shaking. "You okay," Firebolt asked, pulling back uncertainly.

Prowl nodded and the two then switched topics entirely. They made plans to go see these crystals that were supposed to shine out in the sky in the next metacycle, within the same orn of them receiving their third shell. Both of them admitted they were scared for the shells and the changes, which Firebolt now excitedly told Prowl about and how Icescape was going to go with them.

"What about Carrier?"

"Well, it's just-… I mean, it's a lot of new parts and stuff and I think having a mech there would be more comfortable since they have closer to the same parts as we do." The parts didn't vary greatly but Prowl eventually agreed that having Icescape with them wasn't the worst idea, especially if it calmed Firebolt.

"I think I'm gonna get a deeper voice," Prowl said, the two now thinking this through like a fantasy.

"Really? I think you have a cool voice now."

"Yeah, but it's a bit high. My creator had a nice deep voice that I wanted," Prowl explained.

"Pro'lly won't sound the same but I guess that would be cool. I'll probably just make mine more "mature". My creator had a lighter voice so I think just maturing mine would make it sound a bit like his." The two stopped their conversation as the door swished open.

Getting excited since they thought it would be more energon from Moonseeker, they sat up in their berth but quickly ducked down when they saw Dasher, Riffraff, and Moonseeker enter.

Upon seeing his patients unhappy to see him, Riffraff's booming laugh filled the room. "Aw, c'mon, you two! Don't look so unhappy to see us," Riffraff laughed, plucking the two from their berth with Dasher's help. "We're just going to check you to over really quick and be on our way, okay?"

Firebolt gave him a disbelieving look but Prowl just nodded, unable to see his brother's expression from his place on Dasher's lap. They were both scanned multiple times, Riffraff mumbling to himself as he jotted down information about Firebolt while his apprentice did the same silently. "Okay, all done with the scans," Riffraff concluded, another nasty look thrown his way courtesy of Firebolt.

Riffraff then pulled a vial of something from his subspace and Dasher did the same. Firebolt grew tense at this and Prowl only became curious. It was when the two pulled out needles was when all pit broke loose. Both younglings scrambled from the medics but were caught, Firebolt by Riffraff, who expected this, and Prowl by Moonseeker since Dasher was taken by surprise at the immediate reaction.

Prowl just scrambled while Firebolt was just being, as Riffraff would put it later, a special little fragger by mastering scrambling and screaming their audio receptors off simultaneously. Riffraff learned long ago that you had to distract younglings to get them to calm down with needles. Taking out a whistle from subspace, he tossed it to Moonseeker who immediately blew on it, distracting the younglings. Riffraff quickly grabbed the needle and Dasher did the same and both injected the liquid from the vial into the younglings.

Both gave surprised squeals once the needles left their arms. Once they were released, they quickly scrambled to Moonseeker who pulled them into her arms. When Dasher tried to approach them, they both buried their heads into a shoulder. Prowl gave a whine as Dasher grabbed his arm again but calmed as he realized it was only a small bandage placed over where the injection site was in order to stop him from losing energon.

As the two drifted off, Moonseeker asked if the medicine would have any side effects. "Purging, processor aches, or just drowsiness are probably the most likely. It will calm their systems though and aid them in getting more recharge which they certainly need right now. They didn't know it but their bodies urgently needed recharge. It's a part of the virus they have that is causing them not to detect it. It is running its course though and they should be fine in the next few orns."

A few megacycles later, Firebolt woke up and looked over Prowl to see Moonseeker who was writing at her desk. He nudged her through their bond, telling her that he was hungry. She placed her stylus down and picked up one of the lowgrade cubes and picked up her youngling. As Riffraff predicted, he was very drowsy. So much so that he couldn't hold his own cube. Once fed, he returned to recharge. Prowl awoke a megacycle later and Moonseeker used the same system and Prowl returned to his berth to recharge. Around lunchtime the two both woke up and purged, having to be guided to a bin with how tired they were. They soon returned to their berth and began to recharge again. It certainly seemed like an unending cycle of hunger, recharge, hunger, recharge, and purge.

Icescape entered soon after lunchtime, a cube of energon in his hand for Moonseeker. Her friends had told him that she hadn't been seen today. He found his friend with her faceplates in her hands, her wings drooped and her shoulders shaking lightly with her silent cries. Placing the cube on her desk, he put a servo on her shoulder, jolting her a bit.

"Vhat is wrong, Moon," he asked quietly, mindful of the recharging younglings.

She leaned back in her chair to look at her friend who kneeled beside her. "I just hate seeing them like this, Icey. I know they'll be okay and I know I'm just being an overemotional carrier but I care so much about them… It just hurts to see them like this and my bond to Firebolt doesn't help because I can feel just how miserable he is and can't do anything to help him."

Icescape smiled lightly at her. "Jou're doing ze best jou can, Moonzeeker. Zhey just have to get better on zheir own, and zhey vill. Until zhen, jou just have to relax." Seeing her optics look back over to her younglings, he then finished, "How avout I go get my datapads and I'll take care of zhem for a bit vhile jou go relax. Besides, I told Firebolt I'd go vith him to getting his new shell and I zhink Prowl should know I'm safe before I go zrough vith it."

Moonseeker smiled at him. "You really told him that?"

"If eet's all vight vith jou of course," he explained, hoping he hadn't crushed her hopes.

"No, no. I would love that. 'Bolt and Prowl need a mech to look up to." Icescape smiled to her and she stood up. "I'll go get your datapads and grab my energon cube and then go hang out for a bit." He nodded. "Thank you again."

Prowl onlined his optics again. He wasn't hungry and he didn't feel like purging so he didn't know why he was awake. Rubbing his optics beneath his visor, Prowl turned over in his berth to see what Moonseeker was up to but was instead greeted by Icescape's optics looking up to him.

Prowl shrank beneath the purple autobot's stare, the monocle-covered optic creeping him out. He pulled his blanket over his face, using the youngling mindset of being invisible. He heard the quiet chuckle of Icescape and began to peek out to see what he was laughing about. When he was looked at again, he went back under his blanket, which made the mech chuckle again.

Prowl was surprised the mech was just leaving him be. The youngling gave a small whine in pain as his processor suddenly felt like it would explode any breem. He felt his blanket tugged gently out of his grip and was picked up by Icescape, whose name was appropriate considering his freezing servos.

Prowl gave a shudder but soon had his head pushed gently to the mech's shoulder. The cool temperature cooled his processor and eased the pain, making Prowl vent a sigh. He felt Icescape sink into a chair and listened as the mech began to hum Moonseeker's lullaby to him. He began to relax and then instinctively scurried from the officer's lap as his tanks swirled.

"Prowl, vhat's vrong?" The youngling just continued to try and pull away, his head tugging every which way to avoid emptying his tanks on his caretaker. After many failed escape attempts, Prowl finally purged on the mech, unable to hold back any longer. Prowl flinched and ducked his head, ashamed and ready to be thrown like he had been with Hothead.

Icescape was very silent but seemed to gain his senses quickly. "Eet's all vight, Prowl. Jou couldn't help eet. Let's get vashed up." He grabbed the youngling by his scruff bar, not wanting to dirty Prowl more. He filled Prowl's bath and helped the youngling into it. He washed Prowl thoroughly while the youngling remained ashamed of having purged on his caretaker. "Prowl, veally, it's okay," Icescape soothed, wiping the youngling's faceplates.

Prowl still looked like a little cyber puppy who knew he did the wrong thing as Icescape placed him back in his berth and returned to the private washracks to get washed and then clean up the room. Prowl stayed awake until Moonseeker returned a few megacycles later. He had been told multiple times that it wasn't his fault and to get some more recharge but Prowl proved to have one of the largest consciences Icescape had ever seen.

Moonseeker entered quietly and looked over to Prowl who was staring at the berth looking guilty. "What's wrong," Moonseeker asked to both of them, walking over to Prowl and placing a servo on his back plating.

"He purged on me earlier and he's still feeling guilty avout it. I told him it's no big deal but he von't let it go," Icescape explained, looking worriedly at Prowl who was still looking down at his berth and tracing patterns into it.

"Sweetspark, that's not your fault. It's your virus's fault. Icescape's not mad at you."

"I know," he mumbled.

Moonseeker frowned, not sure what to do with the guilt-filled youngling. "Well, no one will benefit from you losing recharge like this. So, what's wrong?" Prowl shrugged. "It can't be nothing if you're losing recharge over this."

Prowl looked over at Icescape and lowered his gaze again. "Well, 'Bolt told me Icescape was going with us when we get our shells and I wanted him to like me but now he doesn't 'cause I purged on him and I know he's just _saying_ he not angry because Hothead was _really_ mad at me."

Icescape frowned. "Prowl, Hothead gets mad about everyzing. If he had half a processor, he vould realize that jou didn't intend to purge on him. At least jou tried to get avay from me, I just didn't know vhy. If anyone is at fault, it's me."

Prowl looked over at him and nodded. Icescape got to his pedes and rubbed the side of Prowl's head. "I have to get going and turn my datapads in." The two said goodbye and Prowl was picked up again. He rested on his guardian's chest plating, finally at ease about this new stranger that entered into his life.

**A/N: **Haha I keep feeling like I'm ending these so cheesily but oh well :) Hope you guys are enjoying the fluff and whatnot~ Review! :D


	10. Chapter 10: Upgrades

**A/N EDIT: **I'm sorry for the reupload but I realized a MAJOR error. I had Crosshatch walk into the medbay... then he talked to firebolt. XD New chapter is coming soon.

* * *

><p>Twitters and clicks of younglings were heard all around the Ark IV. It was the orn all would receive their third shells. Unfortunately for Firebolt and Prowl, the younglings were supposed to be organized in alphabetical order. "Maybe you could change your name to Fowl! It's close to Prowl and you could sit with me," Firebolt offered, making Prowl frown. "Yeah… not one of my best ideas. Okay, how 'bout if I change my name to Pirebolt?"<p>

Prowl laughed and shook his head. The two then eased into an uncomfortable silence, both processors on the new changes. Other younglings sat on couches, nervously awaiting their changes. Prowl realized these were in alphabetical order since Mixtape, Matrix, Nitrospark, Owlflight, and Orion sat on a couch nearby.

Firebolt went over to the couch and looked over at Nitrospark, an acquaintance of his. "What are they gabbing about," he asked, jerking his head towards the two little femmes who were giggling and whispering back and forth.

"Some new younglings came on board today. Dunno if they're staying yet but we'll see," Nitrospark explained.

"Where are they at," Prowl asked, glancing around and not noticing anything out of the ordinary besides the tension.

"The medics are taking care of them before us. They're getting their shells but apparently one of their younglings had a problem with his vocal processor and had to get it checked out."

"I'd hate to be them," Firebolt mumbled, looking at the door.

"Don't tell me you're scared now, Firebolt? I think Prowl has turned you soft," Crosshatch clicked snobbishly, his optics narrowing. Prowl shrank back behind Firebolt. It hadn't been a secret that Prowl was afraid of Crosshatch ever since the incident with the prank going awry. It also wasn't too surprising to everyone to see Firebolt defending Prowl and willingly be a shield.

"Oh, and you're not scared at all," Firebolt countered, crossing his arms and shaking his head in disbelief.

Crosshatch opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by the medbay doors whooshing open. The younglings all seemed to pause and look to the door, unsure of how this process would work. Riffraff stepped out, wiping his servos on a piece of fabric.

He looked around at the quivering younglings with his welcoming smile. "So, before we just begin in alphabetical order, I wanted to see if any youngling actually wants to go," he announced, looking around at the younglings who all avoided his gaze.

"Where'd that confidence of yours go, Crosshatch," Firebolt teased, smirking. His rival, in response, glared and then turned away, looking around to see if anyone would offer to go in.

"I'll do it," Prowl muttered. He was heard, however, since there was a very tense silence as younglings hid behind their guardians or their guardians waited for a youngling to volunteer.

Riffraff's grin grew wider at seeing his favorite little patient step up, probably trying to prove he wasn't just some quit youngling to push around. The medic nodded. "All right, Prowl, follow me."

Once in the medbay, Prowl really saw how busy everyone could be. He was so distracted he didn't even notice his caretaker, Icescape, waiting for him as a medical berth. Icescape smiled lightly at seeing the overwhelmed youngling, who was slowing his steps the farther he got into the medbay. Medics were calling information to each other and there seemed to be about five patients, not including Prowl. Guardians of the younglings had apparently arranged the crate in the back that Prowl remembered hiding behind into a sitting area.

Riffraff looked down patiently at Prowl, who was fidgeting as he observed the strange environment. Prowl's anxiety calmed as he finally noticed Icescape who was calmly watching the youngling. Realizing he was now being noticed by the mechs and femmes on the crates, Prowl looked up at Riffraff. The medic picked up the youngling and brought him over to the medical berth that Icescape was waiting on.

Prowl clicked a bit as Riffraff picked up some tools that looked pretty frightening for a youngling. Prowl felt the chilled servo of Icescape on his back plates. Riffraff pushed down the trigger on the tool he had and it gave a loud whirring noise, spooking the black and gold youngling who quickly curled into a ball.

Peeking out from his alt. mode, Prowl noticed some of the unknown younglings looking over in curiosity. Prowl quickly noticed the lack of red optics in the room now. The mechs and femmes on the crates all seemed to be autobots as well as the younglings. The only pairs red optics in the entire medbay were Dasher's and one or two other medics. A tap on his head made Prowl give a stream of clicks, now focused on the power tool in Riffraff's servo. "C'mon, Prowl. It just sounds awful. I promise it won't hurt at all," Riffraff told him softly.

With a few more coaxing words from Icescape, Prowl finally uncurled from his ball and sat on the edge of the medical berth with his head dipped, staring at his pedes. The end of the power tool rested on Prowl's arm plating. The youngling gave a squeak of surprise at the strange feeling of his plating being taken off. Icescape immediately reached out and held the little arm still until the plating was taken off completely. This left the youngling shivering at the cool breeze that tickled the sensitive wires previously covered up.

The process repeated around the youngling's entire frame until he was left only with wires, his head without his helmet, and the basic mechanics beneath his plating that kept him operating. All of these things were very sensitive and Prowl fought the urge to fidget with every small breeze since moving only made him more uncomfortable.

Without his armor, he felt vulnerable but he also realized how bunched up he was in his old chassis. He even felt a bit taller which, he would learn later, was due to him finally not being crammed into a small shell. Prowl gave a jump as Riffraff finally placed a larger piece of metal onto Prowl's arm and began to weld it on. After his arm was plated with new metal, Prowl realized that his new chassis was much heavier than his old one. 'Great, another way to show how weak I am,' he thought with distaste.

Prowl looked around the room again as Riffraff finished about half of him. All but one of the new younglings had left. The one remaining lay on a medical berth close to the primary monitor of the medbay. "What are they doing to her," Prowl asked curiously, nodding his head towards the unconscious femme.

Riffraff paused in his work long enough to cast a glance to the unconscious little femme. "She's the primary reason the new younglings are here," he explained, continuing his welding. "She was brought here in very bad condition but we made her stable."

"What happened to her," Prowl asked quietly, his optics still fixed on her still chassis and the small screen beside her monitoring her sparkbeat.

"She was part of a crew of warriors along with the others. She got in between crossfire and took a shot to her left side. We removed her plating since she was due for a new shell anyways. They're currently trying to get her vocal processors onlined again. The 'con that shot her nearly destroyed her vocal processors completely."

Riffraff shut off his welding torch as he applied the last piece of plating. He took off his welder's mask and placed it to the side. "Dasher, you mind getting Prowl's paintjob done while I work on Starbreaker?" Dasher looked up from the tiring work of trying to fabricate vocal processors and nodded, accepting the break that his mentor was giving him.

Starbreaker wearily onlined her optics, her cooling fans kicking in the klick she onlined. She noticed the medical equipment attached to her and the medics buzzing around her with orders to each other or casual conversation. None of them had noticed she was online yet and she took this opportunity to find the one in charge since she didn't recognize any of the mechs or femmes.

This didn't take long since a blue and white medic began immediately dishing out orders to all of the others upon noticing her being awake. "We're almost done, sweetspark. Just relax for a bit, okay," he asked gently, rubbing the sensors on the sides of her head. She faintly remembered getting new plating but she only now tried to focus on those around her. Her optics brightened in fright as a femme reached for her throat. "She's going to fix your vocal processors, Starbreaker. We can put you back under, if you'd like?"

Starbreaker gave a quick nod. She wasn't afraid of being under but she was afraid of pain in any form. The red optics of the femme did nothing to relax her either. Soon, the world faded into darkness and her optics flickered closed. "Continue," Riffraff muttered, checking Starbreaker's monitor as her spark rate slowed to a steady rhythm again.

While the femme worked, Razorclip now voiced a question on most of the staff's processors. "Do you think she reacted badly not only out of fear of pain but also that Crystalbeak if a con?" Riffraff frowned but didn't answer, content on focusing on his datapads instead of the idea of hostility coming from this femme. Unfortunately, she was already showing her fear or hatred of them, which wouldn't do once her vocal processors were fixed.

Dasher walked back into the main area of the medbay with Icescape and Prowl with him. Prowl's steps were a bit loud and he noticed Dasher smiling a bit at them. Prowl pouted a bit, not liking how awkward he felt in a much larger shell. "You'll get used to it, Prowl," Dasher reminded him as the black and gold mech seemed to grow more frustrated.

Although the clumsiness and large frame was something he wasn't a fan of, Prowl did enjoy his newly gained height. Thanks to the new frame, he now stood at the older mech's waist instead of around their knees. "Did I miss anything," Dasher asked as he looked back over to Starbreaker. He motioned Prowl to follow him and sit on a nearby berth.

"She onlined when Crystalbeak was about to operate on her vocal processors but we put her back under," a young medic stated, the older ones preoccupied on installing the new programs and parts essential for the femme to speak.

Dasher looked over to the younger medics who were just standing back as Riffraff, Crystalbeak, and Razorclip worked. "I need some servos over here for Prowl," Dasher informed them and they quickly moved over, wanting to get away from the frustrated medics. "Half of you go get some more younglings. Just go in alphabetical order from that list near the door. Just pair off for removing plating, welding, and painting then bring them over here," Dasher instructed, trying to regain the system they had before the focus came to Starbreaker.

Half the group dispersed and Dsaher instructed for certain tools to be prepped then turned to Prowl with a smile. "So, what voice are we thinking?"

"I was thinking a lower voice. My creator had a sort of bass voice so I was thinking something like his," Prowl said with a grin. This was the part he was actually excited for. He hated how high his voice had been compared to his creator's and now he might be able to be just like him!

Dasher smiled at this. "Yeah. Most younglings want to sound just like their carriers or creators," he reasoned, taking a small poking device from one of the younger medics. "We're going to knock you out for a bit so you don't sputter while I change your pitch." Prowl felt something poke a wire and he soon fell into darkness.

"Just give me a 'check check, one two'," Dasher directed as Prowl finally fully onlined from being put under.

"Check check, one two," Prowl repeated, a bit startled by his own voice. Riffraff looked up from his work on Starbreaker in confusion for a breem then broke into a grin. "I sound just like him," Prowl said, amazement in his new voice. He looked over at Dasher who was smiling like a madcon, proud of his work. Prowl immediately hugged the con.

Dasher pulled away after a breem. "You're welcome. Now get outta here. I have other patients to get to," he grinned, walking from Prowl to get a femme over from another berth to adjust her vocal processors. With an enthusiastic smile, Prowl fled from the medbay to go speak to his brother with his new voice.

Little did Prowl know, there was a set of drowsy blue optics following him as he ran out of the medbay. With servos now drawn away from her throat, she asked with a static-filled voice, "Where's he going?"

At the sound of the femme's weak and desperate voice, the three medics immediately looked to the door. Catching the bid of black and gold as the doors closed, Riffraff replied, "Probably going to see his brother. You can leave once the medicine wears off completely." The femme remained silent now, her optics fixed on that door until she could move to it, which wouldn't be for another megacycle or two.

BETA: Just finished this one so the other one will take some time! There's probably a lot more typos and whatnot in here since I haven't read it through yet. I have a party to get to so, here you go!


	11. Chapter 11: The Autobots

A/N: Thank you to quasarsmom for the review and I'm glad you'll be following this =) Thank you to everyone following this, reviewing or not. I love seeing the little: blahblah had added A Broken Angel to their Story Alert/Favorites. So, thanks everyone. It makes my day :)

Sorry for the delay in posting! Life's been a bit hectic lately. Hopefully this chapter will make up for my lost time. Also, I've forgotten in the past chapters but my AMAZING Beta, Razormus Prime, has drawn a picture of Firebolt: .com/#/d4yfv2s

"Your new voice is so cool," Firebolt exclaimed when Prowl called his name. Prowl smiled at the compliment. "C'mon, let's go see what our friends think. After all, I am your brother so I'm probably just being biased." Prowl rolled his optics and followed his brother to Mixtape, who had climbed off the couch and now was in a circle with Owlflight, Hopscratch, Floorshifter, and several others. Everyone in this circle either liked the brothers or hadn't met them yet.

Prowl noticed that the ones he didn't know were the autobot younglings that were in the medbay with him. "Guys! Guys! Check it out! Prowl's voice deepened by like a million octaves," Firebolt shouted, pointing excitedly to Prowl who rolled his optics behind his visor again.

"Really? Say something," Mixtape chirped.

"What should I say?" he asked, smiling lightly as his voice was taken into consideration. Some of the mechs in the group complimented his voice choice and the femmes either giggled or remained indifferent to it.

Half of the group looked over towards the medbay, where Starbreaker had been released. Her steps were a bit cautious, like if she were standing on stilts. The new younglings stood up from the group and walked towards her, some of them looking warily at Firebolt, Mixtape, or one of the other decepticon younglings.

They whispered out of the hearing range of the entbot younglings, most of them looking at the 'cons. Firebolt glanced towards Starbreaker's group and gave a frustrated vent. "'Bolt-" Prowl started but was glared at by his sibling. "Fine. You're funeral," Prowl mumbled, crossing his arms.

Firebolt lifted his chin and walked over to the group confidently. The few on the outer edge quickly moved back, away from the approaching 'con. "Can we help you?" a femme revved, her navy blue optics narrowing as she took her stand in front of the group.

"Oh, just wondering what your problem is," Firebolt countered, his wings nearly meeting each other with how high up they were raised on his back.

"What _our _problem is? Maybe it's because your kind have been killing our friends and made us have to leave our home," she snarled back, her blue optics flashing.

Firebolt's wings lowered and he straightened from his threatening stance. "What do you mean my kind? We didn't attack anyone."

Some of the younglings scoffed at this or rolled their optics at the 'con. "Yeah right! You 'cons came on our ship and shot at us!"

Firebolt looked over at his friends who had heard the whole exchange and were looking back and forth between themselves, confused at the autobot's words. Prowl, on the other hand, seemed to know what was going on and was seeing what Firebolt's reply would be to this. Noticing his brother hadn't a clue in the universe on what was going on, Prowl stepped forward. "Everyone on this ship is neutral. They don't want a war at all. The 'cons on this ship aren't the fighting ones. They don't want the war just like the autobots here," Prowl explained, his deep voice sounding superior to those who hadn't changed yet.

The autobot group looked and whispered to each other, still unsure. Their mutterings were interrupted as Firebolt's name was called from the medbay. The normally oval shaped optics of Firebolt now looked closer to circles as he anxiously looked to his friends and brother. Mixtape activated her speaker system and played a military funeral march song as a giggling Razorclip dragged Firebolt off to the medbay. "Oh, come on, you guys, it's not that bad," she laughed, petting Firebolt's head.

"Says you," Firebolt squeaked, trying to struggle from her grip. "Help! I'm being taken captive!" The entbot younglings giggled, some offering shouts of "Take him away!" or "Run, 'Bolt, run!" The autobot younglings looked a bit out of place in this exchange, not used to the carefree situation between opposing aliances. Razorclip, who they were informed was a top-notch medic, was treating this rebellious youngling with such a casual way that it was a surprise to them she wasn't a guardian instead.

Firebolt stopped struggling as he realized it was pointless. Now hanging upside down by his pede, he smiled at Razorclip. "Primus, 'Bolt. You're going to be the deactivation of me yet," she vented, with a small smile. Seeing no other way to carry the rambunctious youngling, Razorclip lowered her servo, carrying the dangling youngling at her side. She ignored the twittering youngling and entered the medbay.

Prowl shook his head and joined the autobot group's conversation. They were currently whispering nervously back and forth about who might be in the medbay. "Is it true that they actually have decepticons as their medics, Star?"

Starbreaker, seeming to take advantage of this attention, nodded, her eyes wide. "Yeah. I think most of 'em act like 'cons even if they're autobots. One of 'em knocked me out so a 'con could tear up my vocal processors." The younglings around her seemed to draw closer, sensing the story wasn't complete. Unfortunately for them, that was all Starbreaker had, so she continued with her story the best she could. "Luckily, I think a 'bot stepped in and fixed my vocalizer. I mean, we do have the best medics around." The group nodded their approval. All but one youngling, whose optics narrowed beneath his visor as he leaned against the wall, arms crossed.

"Stop lying," he muttered, gaining the whole group's attention.

Surprisingly, well surprising for Prowl at least, he didn't shrink back at the stares of astonishment. Instead, he felt steadier with them. Starbreaker revved. "I'm not lying!"

Prowl clenched his denta together before grounding out, "Yeah, right. Most of the medics working on you were 'cons." Prowl glanced up as medics walked in and out of the medbay, calling out a youngling's name or just taking a break. One specific 'con caught his optic. "Dasher's one of the best medics here," he challenged, pointing to the decepticon who was caught completely off-guard.

The younglings shrank closer together as the 'con approached. "What are you going on about, Prowl," he asked, kneeling down to be on Prowl's level.

"They were saying that 'bots are better than 'cons as medics."

Dasher smiled a bit. "Well, thanks for sticking up for me, bud, but I can think of a lot of medics who are autobots that are better than me. Not all of them, mind you, but there are a few." He looked up as Riffraff exited to take a quick break. "Speak of the Pit-spawn himself."

Riffraff's blue optics met his apprentice's. He then looked over at the younglings who had a "help us" look on their faceplates. Unsure of what Dasher had started now, Riffraff walked over. "He was the main medic. He knew more than your guy did," Starbreaker countered to Prowl, crossing her arms and sticking her chin up.

Riffraff raised an optic ridge. "I should hope so. He's my student-" Dasher raised an optic ridge back. "Well, kind of." Riffraff looked over at Prowl. "I'm surprised you've joined Dasher's side. I thought you were my little buddy."

"Well, I'm on your side too. I just don't think that 'cons are bad medics either. She said that autobots must have fixed her up because she was okay and that the decepticons were just destructive," Prowl explained quickly, not wanting to make his old caretaker angry with him.

Riffraff vented at this news and looked over to Starbreaker, whose optics remained fixed on Dasher. Riffraff kneeled down, gaining their attention again. "None of these decepticons want to hurt any of you. They are all neutral. Meaning, they don't even want the war to happen. Dasher is very trustworthy along with my other medics. I wouldn't let anyone in my medbay who they didn't know what they were doing. I'd trust Dasher before many other autobots here so just give all of the 'cons the benefit of the doubt, okay?" The younglings looked at each other uncertainly. "Why don't you guys just talk to the younglings over there," he suggested, motioning to the group they had purposely set a distance between.

Noticing the group's hesitancy, Riffraff quickly changed his mind. "Prowl, why don't you take them to the observatory?" Prowl tilted his head slightly at this. The huge light show of shooting meteoroids wouldn't be shown for several more megacycles. "Humor me," Riffraff added at Prowl's hesitation. Nodding, though still unsure on Riffraff's idea, Prowl motioned for them to follow him to the observatory.

Once the group began ascending to the fourth floor, Riffraff approached the group of entbot younglings. Most were watching the events unfold but a few were talking back and forth. The chatter stopped as Riffraff bent down to talk to them. "Would you all mind doing me a favor," he asked. By the end of his suggestion, the little 'cons and 'bots were smiling excitedly. They nodded and whispered enthusiastically before scattering, preparing for their mission.

During these events, in the medbay, a youngling began shouting his capture again as Razorclip entered with him. "I zee he iz not taking this very lightly." At the voice of his favorite caretaker, not counting his carrier of course, Firebolt stopped his twittering and struggled to turn to see Icescape.

The autobot's monocle adjusted as it settled on Firebolt. "He is taking it rather well compared to what I thought he might do. At least he didn't run," Razorclip explained.

Icescape chuckled as he heard Firebolt's response of, "Running! Why didn't I think of that?"

He reached down for Firebolt's scruff bar and took him gently from Razorclip's grip. As he was about to set him down on the medical berth, Firebolt gave a hushed, frightened chirp. The volume level was likely due to Firebolt upholding his image in front of the other younglings in the bedbay. However, with his little flame-colored arms reaching out, Icescape held him to his spark as Razorclip prepared a tray of tools.

Firebolt's tiny digits dug at the edges of Icescape's headlights as he heard the sound of a power tool. Icescape soon pried the little digits from his headlights and positioned Firebolt forwards. The little 'con twittered at the approaching power tool, trying to back up as much as possible into Icescape. Unfortunately for this plan, Icescape seemed to be on Razorclip's side and held the youngling still as the power tool met his plating.

Prowl led the autobot younglings to the observatory. He only looked behind him to ensure they were all with him once or twice, trying to avoid their optics at all costs. The observatory was set up for the night's main event of the shooting meteoroids. Unsure of what to do with the younglings, Prowl led them to some of the couches that were set up along the back wall.

As he felt the glares of the younglings behind him, Prowl decided it would be a good idea to try out his new comm system. Quickly choosing Riffraff's name among the thousands in his system, Prowl set up their private comm link. :: So, now what?::

:: I see you've learned to use your comm system,:: Riffraff replied. Prowl frowned at the obvious attempt to avoid his question.

:: Um, yeah. Can you tell me what I'm supposed to do with them?::

:: You'll see.:: With that, the comm link was closed by Riffraff.

Prowl looked over at the younglings who sat on the couch, their arms crossed and glaring. The palpable, tense silence was beginning to disturb Prowl. He'd rather have them gossip about him quietly than have them just sit there silently. Prowl never realized how much he hated silence until this moment. "Well, now what," challenged the same ill-tempered femme that Firebolt had to deal with.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Prowl replied casually, looking at the two hallways that led to this room, hoping for someone to save him from these younglings. He didn't understand their hate for decepticons. He would prefer to be with Firebolt, Mixtape, Dasher, and Moonseeker right now than with these younglings

Prowl backed up from the couches as he heard someone about his size heading down the hallway. Prowl had to do everything in his power not to run down the hallway and thank Primus for whoever was making their appearance. Even some youngling he just saw around the ship would be better than this group of autobots. "Where's your bodyguard, Prowl?" Prowl's spark sank as he met the blue optics of his hated rival, Crosshatch.

A/N: DUN DUN DUN. Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! PLEASE review. I'd like to know what you guys like or don't like =)


	12. Chapter 12: The Lights

The autobot younglings looked excited at the threatening tone towards their least favorite tour guide. Prowl's optics narrowed beneath his visor as a smirk grew on Crosshatch's face when he didn't see Prowl's "bodyguard" aka Firebolt. "I don't need a bodyguard, Crosshatch," Prowl replied cautiously, trying to judge what his rival was planning.

The emerald and gold colored youngling paused in his steps toward Prowl, obviously confused on the response. Typically, Prowl would be running from the room, not standing his ground. "You don't," Crosshatch questioned almost cynically.

"Well, you wouldn't want to disappoint our guests, would you," Prowl asked, motioning to the younglings gathered on the couch. Crosshatch hardly glanced at the younglings before giving an exhalation of air that humans would identify as a snort. Prowl became a bit unsettled at the sound and Crosshatch detected that, realizing that this little audience was Prowl's support.

Prowl stepped back only a little bit before Crosshatch's servo found its place around his neck. With the plating still being too big for Prowl, his neck cables were much more exposed. Out of instinct, Prowl's servos quickly landed on the servo. Fear struck Prowl's spark as he realized that Crosshatch's careless digits were close to one of his major wires. With a pull of that wire, Prowl could be in the medbay for a metacycle at best and that was only if someone found him in time.

The younglings nearby looked at each other uncertainly. They had only wanted to see Prowl roughed up a bit, not severely injured or killed. "Let him go," growled Starbreaker, surprising the other younglings next to her and the two fighting ones.

"Relax, femme. I'm just playing with the little glitch," Crosshatch revved, his optics remaining on Prowl. Prowl gave a whine as he felt the digits tighten slightly, scraping lightly against some of the wires but not enough to snap any.

The younglings looked unsure of the language used by the youngling and watched uncertainly as Starbreaker climbed down from the couch. "I think you're the one with the glitch since you obviously didn't hear me," she explained, gaining a glare from Crosshatch. "Let. Him. Go," she repeated, her voice getting harsher every word.

Seeing no way out of this without the group tattling or ganging up on him, Crosshatch released Prowl, who quickly backed up, servos covering his neck to prevent a second attack. "Maybe one day you'll actually fight me without having someone to protect you, glitch." At the sound of several pedes coming down one of the hallways, Crosshatch quickly left through the hallway nearest Prowl. Trembling, Prowl sat down in front of the couch, staring in shock at Starbreaker. She only glanced at him once, likely checking for damage, before ignoring him completely and climbing onto the couch and awaiting the incoming younglings.

Word had spread from one youngling to another and the majority of Prowl's music class filed in excitedly. They separated into organized groups that confused the autobots on the couch. Some stood with their "alliance" and some didn't. Some of the autobots in the singing group hardly looked at each other, some seemed like best friends, but many autobots seemed to hold the same relationships with the decepticons around them: friends or didn't bother to know them.

Mixtape, in front as usual in her soprano section, looked over at Prowl who was shaking a bit. As the younglings readied themselves to sing by singing scales or doing singing exercises, she bent down towards Prowl quickly. "You okay?"

"Yeah. I'll tell you about it later," he said quickly, trying toshoo her away before she could draw attention. She nodded quickly, seeing he didn't want to be bothered and returned to the group.

"Count us off, Mixtape," a bass announced from the back of the group.

Mixtape smiled a bit. "One two three!"

_Do you ever feel like a plastic bag,_

_Drifting through the wind_

_Wanting to start again?_

The autobots on the couch adjusted themselves a bit, interested in the music. Prowl glanced up at them and smiled a little. He remembered when he stood on his chair across the table from Riffraff to try and see the singer on the bottom floor. Of course, the voices filling the room right now were less experienced but that didn't lessen their love for music and it showed in their expressions and body language.

_Do you ever feel, feel so paper thin_

_Like a house of cards,_

_One blow from caving in?_

_Do you ever feel already buried deep?_

_6 feet under screams but no one seems to hear a thing_

_Do you know that there's still a chance for you_

_'Cause there's a spark in you_

The younglings boosted their volume and soon became focused on their audience. Instead of turning to their friends to sing with them, they focused on the stunned younglings on the couch. Prowl smiled a bit as the younglings broke into parts, revealing the variety in their voices and the overall sound of the group.

_You just gotta ignite the light, and let it shine_

_Just own the night like the 4th of July_

A femme that Prowl had only seen in passing stood at the front of the soprano group and belted the chorus. The choir quickly backed her up and they continued singing to a certain point where Mixtape conducted them to a close.

_'Cause baby you're a firework_

_Come on, show 'em what you're worth_

_Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh"_

_As you shoot across the sky-y-y_

_Baby, you're a firework_

_Come on, let your colours burst_

_Make 'em go "Oh, Oh, Oh"_

_You're gonna leave 'em all in "awe, awe, awe"_

_Boom, boom, boom_

_Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon_

_It's always been inside of you, you, you_

_And now it's time to let it through-ough-ough_

_'Cause baby you're a firework_

_Come on, show 'em what you're worth_

_Make 'em go "Oh, Oh, Oh"_

_As you shoot across the sky-y-y_

_Baby, you're a firework_

_Come on, let your colours burst_

_Make 'em go "Oh, Oh, Oh"_

_You're gonna leave 'em all in "awe, awe, awe"_

_Boom, boom, boom_

_Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon_

_Boom, boom, boom_

_Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon_

The younglings gave various vents and whispers as they looked to their small audience. One of the little mechs on the couch finally worked up the courage to mutter a single, "Wow." With that, the entbots giggled and began conversations with each other while two or three went to the couch to talk to the autobot younglings. Most of them were willing to talk with the entbot autobots. The entbot decepticons had a bit of a rough time talking to them, especially Starbreaker and the feisty femme from earlier.

Prowl began to notice the attention the autobot younglings now received and got up to leave. Since they were now socializing with the others, his job was done. Besides, he was their age and was not meant to sparklingsit. He felt he was being watched as he began to walk towards the hallway. He turned around, but whoever was watching had probably turned by this point since he didn't notice anyone looking at him specifically. Shrugging, he went to go see if his brother was done in the medbay.

"What were you staring at him for," Arrowheart muttered to Starbreaker.

The little youngling quickly took her optics off of Prowl and to the feisty little femme who seemed to be calm for now. Her smirk proved to be taunting her friend. "I… don't know what you mean," Starbreaker replied, crossing her arms. She casted a quick glance to see what Prowl was doing and found him to be gone.

Her little pout didn't escape her ever-observant friend, however. "You like him, don't you?"

Starbreaker raised an optic ridge. "I don't mind him." Arrowheart gave a small snort and ignored Starbreaker, deciding to watch the others speak to the entbots.

Prowl gave a small smirk as he tried to stop himself from fully laughing as his brother stumbled around awkwardly in his oversized shell. "Shut up, Prowler! You got the easiest shell in the universe," Firebolt huffed, climbing up on a couch and laying down.

Prowl smiled now, climbing onto the armrest with ease. "Not the easiest shell in the universe, but much better than yours," Prowl agreed, laughing a bit as Firebolt gave him a hateful glare. "Anyway, I'm thinking of trying to take a look at the intelligence sector."

Firebolt frowned. "You're already thinking of jobs? How about you enjoy being young for five breems?"

Prowl gave a shrug. "Yeah, I guess." The two drifted into a silence, both looking around for something else to talk about. "Have you thought about flying yet," Prowl asked, knowing that would get his brother in a better mood.

Firebolt beamed a grin. "Of course! Hothead said he'd take me flying in a few more orns or whenever I get used to my new chassis."

"Hothead? He wouldn't exactly be my first choice," Prowl mumbled, looking worried for his sibling. With Prowl's anxious mind, he found a way to think that Hothead would just let Firebolt drift into space or he would set him on fire or something.

"He's not really my first choice either but he's not all bad. I think he just puts on a tough guy act. He really likes younglings… At least, I hope so," Firebolt cringed.

The two brothers resolved to make casual conversation for a few megacycles before heading over to the observatory where the lights had been shut off in preparation for the show. Prowl looked around at the buzz of excitement. His classmates were pointing to each other's paintjobs and exclaiming with their new voices their opinions. Prowl and Firebolt were just two little mechs in a large room filled with them, some their age, some in the age group above them.

After his rather lengthy scan, Prowl turned to see his brother thinking with a smirk straight from the pit on his face. "Primus, what are you thinking," Prowl muttered with a vent.

Firebolt looked over at his brother, his head still tilted in thought. "How about we try out my first real takeoff," Firebolt asked innocently.

"Here," Prowl asked with a deadpanned face. "Quick question, 'Bolt. Should we get your processor checked? Only saying this because I think you're malfunctioning if you think you can just practice takeoffs in the middle of a crowded room."

Firebolt frowned, throwing his arms to his sides. "Oh, come on, Prowl! It would just be to there," Firebolt exclaimed, pointing to where some of their fellow entbot 'cons were sitting on a ledge that they flew up to. "See? They're in our class and they can fly up there!"

Prowl gave a vent and turned to his brother. "Firebolt, I don't think you understand. You can fly yourself into a wall for all I care, but I would never allow you to carry me anywhere. Trained or not," Prowl explained, frowning now.

Firebolt shrugged with a smirk. "Fine, suit yourself." Prowl backed up as his sibling shot up, nearly hitting the glass above them. He tried to ease himself slowly down from the ceiling, shakily finding the ledge where the others sat. Firebolt was greeted with laughs and some minor applause on making it to the ledge without smashing into the glass.

Prowl shook his head and walked around, trying to find a comfortable place to sit. "Hey, Prowl." Prowl looked over to where his name was being whispered. Mixtape leaned against a wall near the entrance to the room. "Come on," she whispered with a small smile, running the opposite direction. Curious and with nowhere else to go, Prowl followed. Finally catching up to her down a foreign hallway, he looked up. She sat on the ledge of a window that was very high up, nearly an entire floor.

Noticing her friend finally reaching her, Mixtape flew down. Her flying skills certainly surpassed Firebolt's especially with her grace. She reached out a servo. "We're going to miss it! Come on," she laughed, grabbing Prowl's arm and turning him around. Hugging him from behind, she flew up to the window and set him down. Wobbling with the height, Prowl dug his digits into the ground. Giggling a little, Mixtape sat down and helped Prowl to sit down. "Relax. I won't let you fall," she said, looking out the window.

A small meteoroid shot across the sky. Prowl could hear the muffled response of the other mechs and femmes a room or two down. Mixtape remained silent, however, her large ruby optics staring at the vast array of colors shooting across the sky. The buzz of excitement from their fellows never died down but the response to the meteoroids from the two staring out the window remained an unchanged stunned silence. About twenty breems into the show, Mixtape finally spoke quietly. "It's very beautiful."

Prowl gave a nod of agreement but, noticing she was not looking at him, Prowl replied, "Yes, it is."

They paused in their words briefly before Mixtape broke the silence again. "What happened with you and the autobots?" Prowl looked over at her in confusion but she didn't meet his optics as she continued. "I mean, you were trembling on the ground when we came in to sing. You said you'd tell me later."

Prowl frowned and looked back to the meteoroids. A silence fell between them again as Mixtape waited patiently for the reply. "Crosshatch tried to rough me up but , with the new plating, him grabbing around my neck was a bit scarier than before," Prowl explained. He felt more comfortable telling Mixtape this than anyone else. She was too quiet to tell anyone else and she would never start a fight with anyone let alone Crosshatch. "I'm fine though. Just a bit of a scare, ya know?" Mixtape's mouth tightened for a klick and she nodded. They remained in silence for the rest of the time and they finally began to relax again.

Mixtape turned from the window when the stars outside were the only lights there. "Let's go. Firebolt is probably wondering where you went," Mixtape said with a grin. Prowl nodded and, holding onto Mixtape for dear life, descended from the window.

"How did you find that window, anyway? It's not really easy to find," Prowl asked, casting a last look to the window.

"Well, my creator showed it to me. A lot of the older entbots know it exists; they just don't bother to come in here since there is nothing to do here. It's a good place to just have a quiet time, though. So, I like it," she explained, guiding them through the quiet hallways to the fifth level's main floor. Prowl saw Firebolt looking around in a panic. "Maybe I should let you go," Mixtape giggled, obviously noticing Prowl's brother as well. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Prowl nodded and said his quick goodbye before running over to Firebolt. "Did you miss the show? I didn't see you at all," Firebolt asked, obviously a bit troubled that his brother didn't see the show.

"I was with Mixtape. We saw it. We actually had the best seats for it," Prowl said with a small smirk. This quickly led to an interrogation all the way to their quarters. Prowl never said a word about the secret place where he saw the lights and Firebolt eventually gave up with his questions.

A/N: A bit of fluff for you all. I just realized the other day how long this story is XD Think about it, Prowl still has to meet the Yoketron and the autobots x.x Well, hopefully you guys liked this chapter! Let me know if you liked it or didn't like it in a review =)


	13. Chapter 13: Patrol

A/N: Thank you to IamStarscream and XxArtificializedxX for the reviews! I really appreciate the feedback! =)

It had been several stellar cycles since the orn that Prowl received his third shell. Since then, he and his fellows had grown into their shells with few complications. In fact, it was much easier for them to walk around normally. Most, like Prowl, had taken jobs. Unlike in the alliances, they weren't forced to take jobs. The job option was there for mechs and femmes with nothing else to do and who wanted to help out a bit more around the ship.

Prowl had stuck to his idea of working for the intelligence sector in gathering information on planets, mechs, femmes, the alliances, recent news, and, well, everything basically. With all of this information, came a datapad. Prowl would have to view his datapad, check for errors in it, analyze the information and then send it to his department head, Icescape.

Among Prowl's other responsibilities was sparkling duty. This was basically just watching the youngest of the Ark IV's crew while so their guardians could relax for a breem. Prowl didn't mind this task, but he much rather preferred to watch the younglings since they had more developed personalities and could speak full sentences. Sparkling duty for Prowl was usually with a few strangers and acquaintances. However, one face stood out to him on his first day of sparkling duty. Mixtape stood not far off, trying to soothe a youngling who was frightened of one of the bigger mechs in charge.

Prowl's last remaining task that he had to do about three times in a metacycle was guard duty. This was the most mind-numbing task for him since it was eight megacycles of nothing. Sometimes he would be the lucky bot to spot space junk that might damage the ship a little, but other than that, nothing seemed to happen. Prowl unfortunately had this task with complete strangers and acquaintances only. Even rivals would show once in awhile. They were kept a great distance apart though within shouting distance. So, Prowl was usually left to gaze into space for megacycles.

"You have guard duty tonight," Firebolt asked, coming into the quarters that he and Prowl now shared. Moonseeker, their carrier, lived on the opposite side of the ship from them now, but she was still there for them. The two decided to move out together as they began to feel like their privacy was being invaded constantly. With each other though, they didn't feel the urge to hide many secrets.

"Mhm," Prowl replied, finishing his final report for intel. He picked up the stack of finished datapads on his desk and stood up. "Do you mind checking on Mixtape when you get the chance? She said she could handle my younglings and hers while I'm on guard duty, but I'm not sure."

Firebolt rolled his optics as they walked out of their quarters. "Why don't you just ask her out, already? I mean, Primus, you've had a crush on her since we were younglings," Firebolt exclaimed. Prowl frowned at how loud his sibling was being but continued to walk downstairs with him to where their friends would be waiting.

"I do not have a crush on her. We are just really good friends. Unfortunately, whenever you get close to someone, you feel the urge to pounce at them any chance you get," Prowl replied with distaste. Firebolt wouldn't be described as a player, nor had he brought many mechs or femmes to his berth, but he had more romantic relationships than Prowl had bothered to count.

"Yeah, okay. I'm just saying you guys will happen some day and I just don't think you should waste the time you could have together," Firebolt explained, following Prowl through the fourth level so he could drop off his datapads.

"I'm not wasting my time with her because we won't "happen" any time in the future. We will remain good friends and that's it," Prowl replied, trying to close the argument. As Firebolt opened his mouth to continue, Prowl quickly cut him off, "So, are you going to check on her and the younglings or not?"

"Well, I, um… Yeah. I will," Firebolt stuttered out. Prowl quickened his pace to get away from his brother in order to drop off the datapads then rushed back to him. "You know," Firebolt started, earning a glare from Prowl, "if you don't have a crush on her, why do you get so fired up when I talk about her?"

Prowl's mouth tightened into a thin line before he replied tightly, "Because you bring it up every day and, after awhile, it gets a bit tiring."

Firebolt frowned a little. "Sorry." Prowl just nodded, relaxing slightly. He knew his brother didn't mean anything by his teasing, but his constant nagging could dance on Prowl's last circuit sometimes. They approached their friends who were very disorganized on the couch. The couch could normally sit about five mechs. Instead, about twelve were scattered on the couch, some only partially on the couch, and others not bothering and just sitting on the ground.

Prowl took his usual seat on the top corner of the couch, his pedes resting on the armrest. Firebolt just gave up with his search for a seat and sat on the floor. The mechs and femmes of this group had about three or four conversations going on at once. The one nearest Prowl interested him the most and he quickly turned his head in their direction to show his interest. "-so I told him, 'Roller, I think you've been on security too long. There is no way a decepticon warship exists anymore.' He seemed pretty on edge the last I talked to him, though. Crystalsky gave him the next few orns off. He is one paranoid fraggger," Owlflight said, taking a sip of her energon.

One of the more quiet members of the group looked over at them from his place, squished in the couch. "You don't think there might be one out there, do you? I mean, Roller is paranoid but he could be right, ya know." Owlflight shrugged and a fierce debate grew between the whole group who had caught on to the topic. Prowl frowned at this thought. After all, he was the one on guard duty tonight. They hadn't had an attack by an alliance since the orn Firebolt's creator was killed.

Prowl gave a small jump as someone nudged him. "You okay, Prowler," Firebolt asked, the group's focus now on the worried Prowl. Prowl gave a stiff nod and the group's silence proved they weren't convinced. "Prowl, nothin's gonna happen and even if something does, we outnumber them by the thousands. Besides that, almost all of the entbots are trained to fight with at least one weapon and we have some of the best warriors out there. We also have some of the best medics there have ever been if anything goes wrong." Prowl just gave another nod and excused himself, walking to the fourth floor.

He heard the group finally start talking again in a whisper as he reached the fourth floor. The fourth floor used to be confusing to him with how many hallways there were but he knew the entire system of hallways well. He learned through his earlier classes for the intel division that these hallways were set up specifically so that they would be confusing should enemies try to break into the intel sector. Not only that but any room required permission to enter, a number code, an optic scan, or possibly all three.

Prowl approached Icescape's door and did a quick optic scan and entered the code. Waiting patiently, Prowl was finally let in through Icescape's authorization. "How can I help jou, Prowl," Icescape asked, not turning from his computer as he took in the millions of numbers appearing on it. Prowl looked at the numbers and quickly looked away, getting dizzy from staring at the speed of the numbers appearing.

"I was wondering if there have been any reports of decepticon activity within a reasonable distance of our ship," Prowl replied, looking up from the floor as he heard a beep. Icescape turned around from the now black screen.

"Nozzing significant. Vhy do jou ask," Icescape asked, standing up from his chair and walking towards a set of datapads.

"Just curious," Prowl said quickly, causing Icescape to look up sharply.

"Don't lie to me, Prowl. No vone requires information like zhat out of pure curiosity," Icescape reasoned.

"Well, I have guard duty tonight and-"

"And jou vere vondering if Roller's rambling paranoia was correct," Icescape finished without a hint at it being a question. Prowl gave a small nod to which Icescape gave a small smile. "No, Prowl. I don't believe zhere should be any decepticon activity while jou are on guard. Ve have been monitoring the perimeter more carefully, however," Icescape concluded.

Prowl gave a small nod and stepped back to leave but another thought held him there. Icescape glanced up from his datapads again, eyeing Prowl curiously. "I… know it's not exactly within the bounds of work-related discussion, but I was curious if you have ever had a crush on someone," Prowl asked, optics on the floor for the majority of his question.

Icescape, surprising to Prowl, gave a smile. "I zhink everyone has at least once or twice. Some rumor got started avout Roller and I," Icescape started, scrolling through a datapad as he took his seat again. "However, zhat is most definitely a rumor and nozzing more. He is much too paranoid for me and I am much to logical for him."

As Prowl sensed his superior wouldn't continue without some prompting he nudged him on with, "But you said everyone has a crush once or twice… Have you?"

Icescape smiled and vented lightly. "Yes. I held a crush on a mech zhat is no longer here. He transferred out to vork in an orphanage when ve vere around jour age. I vithheld from emotions until only a few stellar cycles ago…" Icescape held the end of his stylus to his mouth as he thought briefly. He finally looked up at Prowl who waited for the continuation. "I suppose jou are vone of zhe most trustvorthy mechs on my team… Vell, my current crush would be Razorclip," he finished with a small, timid smile.

Prowl couldn't help but grin at that. "The brain surgeon with the head of intelligence. A little clichéd, don't you think?"

Icescape chuckled a little. "Yes, perhaps. May I ask what brought jou to ask zhis?"

"I'm holding a crush on a femme currently and wanted to see if it was natural for, well, mechs like us to have crushes," Prowl replied with a small frown.

To this, Icescape gave a smile and a nod. "Yes, Prowl. Even zhe logical can dream." Prowl gave a light smile and thanked him then headed out to the energon station so he could be fed before spending the next several megacycles on guard duty.

Prowl sat on the ship's outer rim. His first time here was terrifying, the fall a bit intimidating, but once he realized how long he would be out here, he overcame that obstacle. Prowl looked to his sides. He had been out here for two megacycles without looking at his neighboring guards, Crosshatch and Fallout. Fallout was essentially a quiet mech. His bright blue eyes were nearly haunting against his dark plating. Without his bright optics, Prowl likely wouldn't be able to see him.

Crosshatch minded his own these days. He still had his old crew, but he never bothered Prowl or the other mechs and femmes. Of course, mean looks were shared or little words like, "Glitch," were murmured but nothing like the episode Crosshatch had when they first gained their third shell. Prowl's guess was that Crosshatch learned how close he had come to killing Prowl that day and decided to play it safe after that.

Prowl went from watching Crosshatch to space then to Fallout than back again. The two other mechs were either staring idly into space or walking around to loosen up a bit. Prowl, getting bored and tired of straining his neck from looking back and forth, played gently with his visor. His visor interested him, but he was always gentle with it. Not so much that he would drop it but so he didn't break it.

As Prowl fixed his visor over his damaged optics again, he froze briefly. He spotted something far off in the distance, keeping pace with their ship. Quickly looking to his sides in a panic, he noticed his fellow guards took no notice of the object.

:: Prowl to security::

::Security agent Nitrospark responding.::

::Foreign object located from my standpoint on the East side. Please investigate::

::Could just be space junk but we will look into it.::

The comm link held as Prowl waited for the results. Standing now and pacing nervously, optics on the foreign object, he commed Fallout and Crosshatch on a combined comm link.

::Prowl to Fallout and Crosshatch. Foreign object on the East side. It's being investigated.::

::Is it a cause for alarm?:: Fallout replied, turning his bright optics on the object Prowl was referring to.

::I'm not sure. That's why we're having it checked out,:: Prowl replied. The earlier conversation about Roller and the Decepitcon warship rang in Prowl's processor, but he kept this to himself. After all, if it was just space junk, he wouldn't want to panic everyone.

::If you don't know your information, why are you comming us,:: Crosshatch asked bitterly.

There was a brief pause in the comm link before Prowl replied, ::Oh, I apologize. Please return to your very entertaining business of sitting on your aft doing nothing.:: Crosshatch didn't reply but Prowl could have sworn he heard a little snicker from Fallout.

They waited a few breems and Prowl could only see the object advancing towards the ship. ::Nitrospark to Prowl. It appears to be a ship of some sort. We are commencing cloaking in just a few breems here.::

::Copy that, Nitro:: Prowl then alerted the two beside him and they gave their affirmations of hearing the plan. The two on Prowl's sides seemed to relax a bit with this information, but Prowl grew more panicked about it. After all, space junk was typical but a ship was very rare. Prowl stood at the edge of his walkway and narrowed his optics to try and get a better look of the ship.

Prowl's optics shot open as he saw a glowing light from the ship. That light, likely a charged blaster, would definitely hit them before a cloak could be set up. ::Prowl to Nitrospark, alert the East side of the ship to clear out. I repeat, clear out. It's a warship. They are aiming to kill. Move everyone.::

Prowl quickly closed that commlink and returned to his one with Fallout and Crosshatch. :: Abandon your positions. I repeat, abandon your positions. They are aiming a blaster at our ship.:: Prowl looked to his left to see Fallout running from his position but found Crosshatch to be looking at him with confusion. ::Crosshatch, abandon your position,:: Prowl shouted over their commlink, running in his direction to get away from the shot himself.

Crosshatch remained defiantly where he was, however. ::You're crazy, Prowl. It's not going to-:: His thought remained unfinished as Prowl kicked him in the middle of his chassis and off the edge of the ship. With space's lack of gravity, Crosshatch was sent to the south side of the ship instead of just a lower section of his southeast position. As Crosshatch was about to cuss Prowl out for the kick and demand an explanation, he paused and watched as his rival was hit by the edge of the ray shot from the decepticon warship.

A/N: The next chapter is a work in progress. Unfortunately, my laptop charger is broken so I will have to wait for the new one before the next chapter is up. (I'm running on the last energy left right now.) Reviews are always welcome and greatly appreciated!


	14. Chapter 14: The Battle

A/N: Warning: Character death in this chapter. Not in detail at all, but I thought I'd give a warning. Sorry for the delay, everyone! Hope this chapter is okay. =)

"Everyone please evacuate the East side of the ship. Enemy fire approaching. Prepare for battle." Firebolt dropped his energon cube, his spark feeling as if it were being constricted. Shaking his head in disbelief, he was now fueled with a new energy; to protect his brother and carrier. Hurrying with the crowd up to the fifth level, he opened his quarters and smashed the casing that held his double swords.

Firebolt ran from his room to go find Prowl, who would likely need help since he was on the outer perimeter. Firebolt collapsed to the ground with everyone else on the ship as the East side of the ship was hit. Shouts and commands arose around the collapsed crowd, who were swiftly moving to protect their families or charging to the East side of the ship for battle. Firebolt saw the group and, swords in his servos, followed them to battle.

Walking onto the outer perimeter, Firebolt was confronted with an arriving ship of decepticons ready to fight anyone in their way. Many entbots were being deactivated; only some of them trained enough to deal with this level of skilled opponents. Judging the situation carefully, Firebolt took a dodge to the right, narrowly avoiding being blasted at by Starscream, who was blasting freely at the scattering entbots. Firebolt turned the corner and nearly sliced off the head of the entbot rounding the corner, but stopped short at recognizing the emerald and gold paintjob. "Crosshatch?"

Crosshatch was a mess to say the least. The normally collected and arrogant entbot looked like a terrified youngling caught in battle. "Firebolt! Can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm glad I ran into you!" Crosshatch's optics widened and then he quickly checked over his shoulder. Shushing Firebolt, he motioned him to follow. Checking behind him to ensure no decepticons were heading their way, Firebolt followed his rival closer to the southeast side of the ship. Knowing Crosshatch was likely leading him to Prowl, the charred walls did nothing to calm down the anxious Firebolt. Crosshatch gave a jump a few breems later and he crouched down, encouraging Firebolt to do the same. Firebolt soon heard the conversation that they would be eavesdropping on.

"Do you think this one would please Shockwave," a decepticon asked, dangling an unconscious Prowl upside-down.

"Well, he'll be of no use if you handle him so carelessly," another scolded.

"He's basically scrapmetal by this point, anyway," he replied with a scoff. That decepticon and his partner soon found that they had spoken their last words, both doubling over in a cry of pain as their sparks were extinguished by two swords.

"He's not scrapmetal. He's my brother," Firebolt growled quietly as he withdrew his swords and set them down before gently picking Prowl up. Cradling Prowl to him the best he could with one arm, he picked up his swords in his other servo. The journey to the medics was going to be a lengthy and dangerous one. Meeting Crosshatch's stunned optics he motioned to the blasters attached to Crosshatch's arms. "Think you can clear a path to the medbay?"

The entbot gave a firm nod, looking more determined to save Prowl's life than Firebolt would have hoped. Fixing their battle masks into place, the two began towards the south side, hoping for a door to be open so they could reach the medbay in time.

Firebolt hugged Prowl to him a bit more as he heard footsteps running towards them. Tightening his grip on his swords, he stepped behind Crosshatch. There was a brief pause before Crosshatch began to fire on the approaching decepticons. One went down with a single blast the other jumped back and tried to retreat quickly, but Crosshatch shot down one of his wings. "Come on, they might have called back-up to this side," Crosshatch muttered, charging his cannons again.

The two began to run now, knowing a door must be nearby. The sound of jets flying nearby made the two slow their steps. The silence that followed made them stop completely. Firebolt nearly dropped Prowl as a servo suddenly was pinning him to the ship. By the sounds of grunts and cannons being fired, it was determined Crosshatch was busy with his own opponents. "Drop the autobot, you pitiful excuse for a decepticon," Starscream shouted, tightening his grip on Firebolt's neck.

"That's where you've made your mistake, Starscream. I'm not a decepticon and I never will be," Firebolt smirked, slicing Starscream's wing with his swords. As the second-in-command fell, Firebolt fled from the scene and soon heard Crosshatch catching up. Entering the code to the door, the two hurried inside. Sounds of the three decepticons slamming against the door and trying to break it down were quickly followed.

::Riffraff, prepare the 'bay for a serious condition patient.::

::I'll add him or her to my list in here, Firebolt,:: was the yelled reply.

::He better be at the fragging top of your list 'cause I'm not losing Prowler today,:: Firebolt shouted back. He then dropped his weapons and held Prowl securely to him as he jumped over the railing of the fifth floor to the fourth, using his boosters to cushion the fall. He then did the same for the third floor and was soon in the medbay.

"I got him," Riffraff told him the second Firebolt walked in, taking the injured entbot in his arms. Dasher quickly shoved Firebolt, explaining they didn't have the room and that he should go check to make sure his carrier was okay. Reluctantly, Firebolt nodded and flew up to the top floor where Crosshatch waited beside Firebolt's weapons.

"I'm going to stay with you for now. I'd rather us not be fighting partners, but there's no one else in here who is ready to fight," Firebolt explained, picking up his swords.

"Fine by me. Let's go check on the families and then we can just protect those hallways," Crosshatch suggested, which Firebolt agreed to, leading them to the fifth floor's hallways.

"Looks like everything's quiet," Crosshatch finally said after they roamed their third hallway. The emerald entbot halted in his steps as Firebolt seemed to freeze. "Firebolt, you okay?" Circling around to his front, Crosshatch found Firebolt holding his servo to his spark.

"No..." was the quiet reply, then it grew into a determined, "NO!" Pushing past his confused partner, Firebolt ran through the hallways towards Moonseeker's quarters. Crosshatch stopped his questions as he heard the loud banging from the next hallway of a door being smashed in with a combination of terrified youngling screams. As Firebolt turned this corner, the banging stopped. Crosshatch turned the corner to see a decepticon collapsed on the ground, a sword sticking up from his back.

Looking over at Firebolt, he realized the entbot was staring into Moonseeker's quarters and bracing himself against the side of the door. Curious, Crosshatch peeked around Firebolt to see Moonseeker lying still on the ground, her chassis still and dripping energon, and her paint faded to grey. Stunned for a klick, Crosshatch soon came to his senses. "Firebolt, come on," he commanded firmly, tugging him away from doorway.

"I-I can't-"

"Would she rather you stand here and watch her chassis or make sure everyone else is all right," Crosshatch asked with a bitter tone.

Reluctantly, Firebolt tore his gaze from the room, his face revealing no emotion. Crosshatch then went about checking the other rooms, ensuring no more families were broken up. However, just like any war, there were many deaths, but luckily most were staying on the battlefields and not within range of younglings.

"Riffraff, you have to get some recharge. Just go to your quarters for a megacycle and I'll be happy," Dasher complained lightly to his overworked boss.

The chaos that surrounded the orn of fighting had died down and the medical team had done all they could at this point. Several entbots were in stasis lock; many were deactivated, and even more left injured or mentally scarred. The ones who were only slightly injured with scratches or dents were coming in one by one now. Previously, they were kicked out of the medbay if they weren't losing energon at a fast rate.

Dasher and Riffraff sat in the back room now, which was filled with medical berths. These were reserved for those in stasis lock and, unfortunately, there were quite a few. One entbot in recovery was Prowl, who had to have half of his chassis rebuilt from scratch and many wires replaced. It had taken several megacycles for Prowl to remain stable enough for Riffraff to move to another patient. Now that everything was quiet, Riffraff had committed himself to Prowl's side.

Riffraff lifted his navy blue optics from his servos. "Firebolt already lost his carrier to that fragging battle. I'm not letting him lose a brother too," he replied in a harsh, quiet voice. His optics turned back to Prowl, whose still chassis offered no comfort.

Dasher gave a tired smile and pulled a chair over to sit beside Riffraff. Knowing his boss might never leave Prowl's side unless called for, Dasher resolved to changing the tone of the conversation. "When he comes out of this, do you know how much of a hero he's going to be," Dasher asked in an excited whisper.

Riffraff glanced over at him as if he were crazy, since Prowl hadn't show processor activity since the attack, but then gave a resigned smile. "Over half of this ship was on the East side of the ship today. If he hadn't said anything, every one of them would have been deactivated," Riffraff agreed, placing his servo on top of Prowl's. The only relief in this was the warmth still in Prowl's servo as opposed to the cold, deactivated ones of the patients he had lost in the past orn.

A silence fell between the two until the gentle smiles fell from their faces and Dasher continued conversation with what was on his processor. "Has there been any word on Razorclip?" Dasher asked gently. Their jobs would be much easier if they had their processor medic with them.

"Only that she was last seen being dragged to the decepticon warship, from those who could see in the cloud of smoke they said she was knocked out. There were apparently two others kidnapped too: Icescape and Hothead," Riffraff explained. He tried to distract himself from this terrible news by checking Prowl's stats again. They hadn't changed in the slightest, but it gave him something to do.

"What could they need from a processor medic, an ill-tempered council member, and the lead intelligence officer," Dasher asked, trying to point out the oddity of the combination.

"I agree that it's a strange group to take, but they are all very important to this ship. Hothead, despite his temper, knows an awful lot about every single entbot on this ship. They actually may want to recruit him for his temper. The other two are practically useless to them. Although they have very high skill levels, they would never want to aid in the war," Riffraff replied, trying to understand for himself what the decepticons were planning.

"The mission went exceedingly well, Lord Megatron," Starscream gloated, bowing, without much effort, to Megatron. "Three entbots have been captured and are ours for the mind-warping," he concluded, rubbing his servos together.

Megatron rose from his seat, fixing Starscream with a glare. The seeker's wings betrayed him by lowering slightly to show his fear. "And how many of our army did we lose to this battle?"

Starscream fumbled slightly before quickly trying to secure his words. "Oh, no one significant, my Lord. Besides, with the warrior that Shockwave is promising, those that were lost would have seen the advantage of their sacrifice."

A loud bang was heard down the hallway and this was quickly followed by Blackarachnia's voice coming over a commlink to Megatron and Starscream. "We may need some help in the medbay. It seems the prisoners are a bit more feisty than anticipated," she stated, sounding a bit bored by the chaos surrounding her.

Closing the commlink, she crouched in the corner of the ceiling, not making her presence known to the prisoners until necessary. The one known as Hothead was proving to be the most difficult, giving even Lugnut a run for his credits. Icescape stood in front of a still offlined Razorclip, throwing his own punches as well as ice from some cannons on his back. Shockwave was currently trying to protect his supplies needed to create this superior warrior.

Analyzing the situation carefully, Blackarachnia shot a web out to Hothead's visor. This caused the entbot to become blinded for a few breems, long enough for Lugnut to punch him hard to the side. However, while Lugnut was doing this, Icescape used his ice cannons on Lugnut's pedes, freezing him in place. "Would you help him, organic," Shockwave shouted up to Blackarachnia.

"Or you could give it a try, Cyclops," the femme hissed back, leaping down from her corner. Icescape backed up a little, trying to shelter the unconscious entbot behind him. "Oh, aren't you cute. Still trying to save your friend when you know she is helpless against us?"

"Jou think I can't take on two Cyclopes and a femme vith an organic mode? Jou underestimate me," Icescape countered, firing his cannons at the femme and Shockwave.

Shockwave allowed himself to get hit, still sheltering the complicated controls he was guarding. Blackarachnia avoided the ice altogether and leaped up onto the ceiling. "Oh, come on. Vhere is the fun in avoiding ze fight," Icescape asked, his monocle zooming in and out as it tried to find the partially organic decepticon.

Icescape swiftly turned as the doors opened to reveal Starscream and Megatron. Icescape trained his cannons on them, but never got the opportunity to fire as he felt two stabbing pains in his sides. "I prefer more of a stillness and strike type of battle plan," Blackarachnia whispered to the now still entbot.

"Excellent work, Blackarachnia. Despite his dislike for our cause, I think he will learn to see things our way soon enough," the voice of Starscream spoke.

Icescape understood he had been injected with organic venom, freezing his circuits temporarily. He stared ahead, without much option, as Shockwave moved him aside and secured him to a medical table. "Don't worry. You won't feel a thing," Shockwave said, a malicious smile likely hidden behind his mask.

A/N: The mood changes fast when battle scenes come up XD As always, reviews are welcomed and encouraged!


	15. Chapter 15: Recovery

**A/N**: Sorry for the delay in posting, guys. I'm busy with sports and summer reading, so it's hard to find time to write. Hope you guys like this next chapter.

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><p>Firebolt was a loose cannon over the coming orns. He wasn't throwing things or getting violent, but his eerie silence would only break if he yelled at someone. It was an odd sight for his friends, since Firebolt was always happy. He was the one who pulled pranks. He would bring you up if you were feeling down. Every entbot on the ship wanted to cheer him up, but what was there to say?<p>

Everyone gave the medbay a glance whenever they passed by and they'd even look over to the medics more often, hoping for some improvement of the entbots currently in stasis. When asked about it, the medics would all say the same thing, "They're the same. They aren't better. They aren't worse, just the same." It was a programmed reply that Riffraff had probably ordered them to give to anyone who asked. The last thing he needed was a scare due to a medical student's slip of the glossa.

Then there was the entire matter with Icescape's disappearance. If anyone could bring Firebolt out of this depression, it would be Icescape. After all, Icescape was there after Firebolt's creator had been killed. He was Firebolt's primary source of comfort then, and now he was missing. Firebolt took another drink from his high-grade. Normally, someone would tell him to take it easy on how much he was consuming, but at this point he didn't care and they had given up trying to help.

It was now about half a metacycle later and not much had changed. Firebolt still tried to sit alone and drink his high-grade, Prowl was still in stasis with no sign of improvement, and the autobots, who had joined the entbots when they were younger, were still saying that nothing good could come of decepticons.

Arrowheart, the one who was normally the most adamant about the autobot cause, remained silent, her blue optics focused on the depressed 'con nearby. Branching from her group, she walked to the table for two, where he sat alone. "Hey," she muttered, taking the empty seat across form him.

Firebolt stared into his high-grade, not affected by the femme sitting beside him. She captured his wrist as he went to take another drink. Surprised by this action, Firebolt stared back at the challenging femme.

"Stop this. Prowl wouldn't want you to," she stated firmly, glaring at him.

"And what the frag do you know about my brother?" Firebolt snarled back, trying to make her release his wrist.

Arrowheart tightened her grip as she felt his overcharged chassis drag his servo back. "I know he cares about you and he wouldn't want to see his brother trying to drink away pain because of him," she replied, her tone never escalating above stating facts.

"Well, he's not here, is he?" Firebolt replied, fixing her with a glare of his own.

"He's in the medbay. He is here. He is still functioning," she replied, a bit of anger slipping into her voice. She paused briefly then added, "He's not gone. So, stop acting like he is." With that, she released his wrist and walked quickly over to Starbreaker and Mixtape, who chatted quietly, throwing glances to Firebolt and Arrowheart.

"How is he?" Mixtape asked, shrinking back a little as she noticed Firebolt's mood getting oddly calm.

"He'll be all right. You guys wanna go see how Prowl's doing?" Arrowheart asked. She knew that Mixtape was a close friend of Prowl's and she knew from when they were little that Starbreaker had a crush on him. Starbreaker never acted on it, however, keeping her distance. Arrowheart quickly noticed her little glances at Prowl throughout the stellar cycles and was telling anyone who would listen. The news was buzzing through the Ark IV in the past stellar cycle on whether it would be Starbreaker, the secret admirer, or Mixtape, the longtime friend, who would ultimately make the move on Prowl.

Mixtape smiled a little, seeming to like the idea of moving away from Firebolt for the time being. "Yes. Let's go." Upon stepping into the medbay, the three were greeted with a buzz of excitement from the medbay's staff. "Hey, Dasher, what's going on," Mixtape asked, a smile flashing to her face as she sensed the happiness of the medics.  
>Dasher smiled excitedly back at the femmes. "Some of those in stasis are showing great improvements as a response to a stimulus shock. Prowl is one of them," he added with a small, excited laugh. "Come with me. I'll show you."<p>

He hopped from his seat on a medbay table and went into the next room, which despite the happiness in the next room still emanated an eerie vibe. A few medics were in the room as well, checking the statuses of the patients. Riffraff was beside Prowl with a small smile, muttering something. "How's he holding up?" Dasher asked, looking at the monitor beside Prowl.

"He can definitely hear and I've gotten him to move a digit. He may not be fully functional, but we are getting him back little by little," Riffraff replied, holding Prowl's servo in his own. "C'mon, Prowl. Try squeezing my servo," Riffraff prompted. The group watched in anticipation as Prowl's servo, little by little, tensed and began to curl up around Riffraff's. "There you go," Riffraff smiled. "Just relax for a little. You have some visitors."

Tilting the head of the berth up a little so that Prowl wasn't laying down completely, Dasher and Riffraff left to look at the other patients. Starbreaker motioned Mixtape to go first since she could see that the femme was nearly bubbling over with excitement. Mixtape didn't hesitate and quickly sat at the edge of Prowl's berth. Prowl's face showed light traces of confusion as Mixtape took his servo, causing her to giggle.

"It's Mixtape, Prowl," she laughed. "I'm so glad you're doing better. You gotta hurry up and get back here though. All of the younglings miss you. Well, I miss you too and so does basically everyone else on the Ark IV." She paused as she tried to figure out how to mention Firebolt. "Firebolt misses you too… I mean, really bad, Prowl," she muttered. Her voice weakened as lubricant leaked from her optics. Mixtape jumped a little as a servo landed on her back plating. She turned swiftly and found Riffraff there with a small, sympathetic smile. Her attention briefly returned to Prowl. "I'll see you later. I'm going to go check on some of the others in here."

Prowl's spark gave a jump as an electric charge ran through his body. _'Primus. What the slag-,'_ Prowl thought, giving a small frown to it. Wait… He could frown? That meant that he could move! Prowl tried to force his optics open and move his arms.

"Whoa, Prowl. Easy," Riffraff's voice said quickly.

_'I can hear now?'  
><em>  
>Prowl felt Riffraff's servos try and relax him. "I know you're trying to move, but you're processor is still starting up along with several wires and cords we had to install after your little stunt on the outside of the ship," Riffraff explained with a little distaste. "Why you would put yourself in the direct line of fire?" Riffraff started before just shaking his head.<p>

Prowl had to think this through. _'Why was I in the line of fire? I cleared out that side of the ship by that point," _he reasoned. It took a few breems before he could remember. _'Crosshatch. Hm, I wonder how he's holding up. I wonder if Firebolt and Moonseeker were able to escape,' _Prowl thought with a great deal of worry which apparently showed on his monitor.

"Prowl," Riffraff started, sounding as if he were scolding a youngling lazily, "stop thinking about whatever you're thinking about. Try thinking about, um, whatever songs you're going to teach the younglings when you get back." That is the thought that Prowl used to keep himself preoccupied for a few breems until Riffraff's voice caught his attention.

"Prowl, we're going to try and get you to move your digits. Focus on your left servo. It's one of the parts that had to be rebuilt," Riffraff explained. Prowl felt his servo being lifted from the table and being held up by Riffraff's servo. On his cue, Prowl tried to move his digits. It took several breems of trying, but he eventually succeeded. That was when Dasher came in with Prowl's visitors.

After his servo exercise was done, Prowl would have jolted back if he could as a servo took his. As he become confused, he heard Mixtape's high pitched giggle and her clarifying whom it was. Prowl gave a small smile as she explained that the younglings missed him along with herself and the rest of the ship. He felt uneasy with the pause, however, and the smile faded. . "Firebolt misses you too… I mean, really bad, Prowl," Mixtape muttered.

Tears were evident in her voice and it made Prowl feel more hopeless than he previously felt. _'Mixtape, it's all right. Firebolt will be okay and so will I. Everything will be fine,'_ he thought in frustration. She said a quick goodbye and left, making Prowl feel abandoned until he heard whispering off to the side. _'Who is that,'_ he thought briefly.

"Hey, Prowl. It's Starbreaker and Arrowheart," Starbreaker started, sitting where Mixtape had. Pausing out of habit for a reaction, Starbreaker continued. "Well, I basically came here because Arrowheart pushed me to come here and tell you something that I've been holding back since we were younglings. I kind of have a crush on you… and have since we were little. I guess I had to wait until you were in stasis to tell you," she explained, joking a little, but also showing distaste towards her behavior.

Prowl was half glad that he was in stasis because he honestly didn't know how to react. He always found her interesting since he saw her in the medbay. Ultimately, she was very attractive, but she never really stood out to him since she always seemed to stick to her crowd and Prowl stuck to his. "Anyway, I hope that Riffraff's right and that you can hear me, because this might be the only time I have the courage to say it. Maybe we could get a drink or something once you're out of stasis," she said, finally releasing his servo.

Arrowheart watched as her friend left the medbay, obviously now worried that Prowl would reject her, but she wouldn't know until he wakes. Arrowheart, being the only one left to talk to Prowl, approached the berth. "All I'm going to say is that you owe us for having to put up with your brother, but we'll take care of him until you wake up," she stated before walking out of the medbay.

The next few orns were pretty uneventful for Prowl. He still could only move his digits and he could only hear, but that didn't stop Mixtape from visiting as well as a few younglings and co-workers from the intelligence sector. Prowl tried to get his internal chronometer to work so he could at least know the time. He was interrupted by Dasher directing someone to his berth.

There was a long silence and Prowl decided to move his digits to try and break the vision of him being deactivated. The small huff of a laugh was hardly an indication of who it was. _'C'mon. Speak,'_Prowl growled in his head, wishing his optics were working.

"Hey, Prowler," Firebolt muttered, taking a seat beside the berth. "I really miss you. More than I'd like to admit, at least," Firebolt started, his arms crossed as he stared down at the floor.

'_Yeah, same here,' _Prowl replied in his head. He had never wanted a bond with his adoptive brother until now. At least then they could have a conversation.

"I'm sorry it took me so long to come here. It's just really hard to see you this way, and I don't want to hold hope that you get better and then you suddenly take a bad turn," he explained, trying to hold it together as he glanced up at his brother who had remained motionless. "Primus, Prowl. I feel so alone," he whispered, resting his head on the berth.

Prowl noticed some static in his usually black vision. The static soon brought way to a static covered ceiling and lights. Putting in his best effort, Prowl moved his head to the left. It took a few breems, but Prowl finally found Firebolt with his head resting next to Prowl's hand. Once again using all of his strength, Prowl twisted his wrist so he could place his servo on Firebolt's head. Firebolt gave a startled jolt at the touch and quickly looked over at Prowl who stared back.

"P-Prowl…" Firebolt then gave a large grin. "You can see me, can't you?" he asked.

Prowl gave a small smile back, which made Firebolt's grin grow. "Riffraff, we have some improvement over here," he called out, placing his servo over Prowl's.

\Over the next several orns, Firebolt increased his visits and Prowl's right side began to move more. His left side took another several orns to begin working since the medbay crew had rebuilt it all.

Prowl looked over from the berth, tilting his head to the side to see who was coming in. Dasher gave a smile at seeing Prowl's interest. "Well, happy metacycle in the medbay," Dasher joked, making Prowl give a roll of his optics. "If it helps, your brother's mood is back to normal and our number of stasis locked entbots has dropped significantly," Dasher offered, checking Prowl's stats.

Prowl narrowed his optics at Dasher and replied in his head, '_Yes, and I'm one of the ones left while others got to leave. Thank you for reminding me.'_ Dasher raised an optic ridge to the dirty look, but soon dismissed it. After all, he had no way of really knowing what Prowl wanted to say unless Prowl could speak.

"You're improving in your processor functions, movement on your right side altogether, and some vocal functions," Dasher stated from a datapad. Prowl gave him a look of confusion at the final improvement. "Supposedly you have been mumbling in your recharge. Firebolt said that you can normally form full words in recharge, so perhaps you are thinking too much about thinking for it to actually happen," Dasher explained. Prowl gave a nod and rested his head back again. It was going to be several long orns, but hopefully he would be able to leave sooner rather than another metacycle from now.

After there were no improvements in the next several orns, Prowl began to grow impatient. He had his few visitors that he loved, but he needed to know what was going on outside of this room._'Okay, Prowl, focus on your left servo_," he thought with determination. He dismissed the warnings against moving his left side and eventually he felt his left servo brush the table. This small victory soon ended in a forced recharge.

Prowl opened his optics slowly to see Riffraff adding some more energon to an energon line. "Hey, Prowl, here's an idea," Riffraff started, not yet looking at his patient, "when you see a warning pop up, don't dismiss it. It will save me some work." Prowl frowned at how Riffraff seemed much more on edge since his voice didn't hold his usual joking manner.

Riffraff glanced to his patient and vented a huff of air. "Sorry. It's just… I'm really tried of seeing you in here. I know you're just as tired of being in here," he paused before fixing Prowl with a glare and smile, "but that's no excuse for dismissing warnings." Prowl smiled a little at the medic and looked down at his left servo. There was a silence as Riffraff looked down at the servo as well. Soon there was a small twitch from one of the digits. This was soon followed by another moving a little and then a closed fist that soon relaxed.

Prowl gave a successful smirk to Riffraff who just shook his head with a small laugh. Riffraff looked over to Prowl and gave a smile. "Want to try standing up?" This led to many failed attempts at standing and only one or two successes by the time Prowl got tired. This was tried all that week until he was able to walk normally. In the meantime, he was able to form words at certain points of the orn and soon was speaking normally.  
>-<p>

Firebolt walked into the backroom of the medbay and came to an abrupt halt upon entering. Prowl watched from a dark corner as his brother searched the empty berth, the remaining berths, and then just any table. He soon approached the door he came from, the door near Prowl's hiding place. Crouching low, Prowl pounced from his hiding place while Firebolt was in the middle of asking where Prowl was.

"Prowler, you're up," Firebolt exclaimed in a daze.

Prowl climbed off his brother and helped him up. "Of course. We've just been keeping it a secret from you for the past metacycle," Prowl explained, walking out of the backroom with his brother freaking out behind him.

"It wasn't that long," he shouted before pausing and turning to the medical staff. "It wasn't. Was it?"

Riffraff leaned back in his chair, facing away from the two retreating entbots. "Yes, Firebolt. We have been pulling a prank on you this whole time. Prowl was never in stasis. We didn't even get attacked. It was all a setup," he mumbled sarcastically.

Firebolt gave a pout at his own gullibility and Prowl laughed, dragging Firebolt out the door so that he could check on everyone.

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><p><strong>AN:** As always, please review! :)


	16. Chapter 16: Bad News

**A/N:** Sorry for the lack of updates, everyone, but here is your new chapter =) As always, reviews are welcomed and encouraged!

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><p>Prowl was greeted by every entbot as he made his way to the second level to talk to Starbreaker. On their way, Prowl explained why they were going to see her. Firebolt was skeptical to say the least. "So, the femme who would normally never give you a second glance just proclaimed her love to you while you were in stasis lock? Granted, I might give you some credit if she weren't already dating another mech," Firebolt reasoned rather loudly, drawing a few looks.<p>

Prowl ignored his brother until the last sentence, where he paused in his steps. "She's… what?"

Firebolt gave Prowl a strange look before it hit him. "Right, you were in stasis lock the whole time. About halfway through the metacycle of you being in stasis lock, Starbreaker started dating Orion. Since he's more part of our crowd, it was kind of a surprise, but he wasn't going to complain. Primus knows that mech is nervous enough without a partner," Firebolt said, continuing their walk to the second floor.

As they made their way to the second floor, Prowl and Firebolt found Starbreaker and her group not too far from their own group of friends. Starbreaker's group normally consisted of previous war veterans or just average brutes, femme and mech alike. Arrowheart, the normally hot-tempered femme, glanced up first from the group as Prowl and Firebolt made their approach. She quickly nudged Starbreaker, who stopped her flirting with Orion at seeing Prowl.

Two others sat with Arrowheart, Orion, and Starbreaker. They were the two entbots beside Prowl when the decepticon ship fired, Crosshatch and Fallout.

Arrowheart was the only one offering a small smile while the rest were stunned. Orion was the next to grin at Prowl. "Well, look who's out of stasis lock," he said, trying to break the strangely tense silence.

Prowl smiled at him and nodded. Prowl's optics soon landed on Crosshatch, who gave him a small nod of thanks. Prowl just nodded back and then quickly turned his attention to Starbreaker. "Starbreaker, do you mind if I talk to you privately for a breem?" he asked, trying to sound as professional as possible. The others in the group gave a confused look to Starbreaker, but she didn't take notice of them as she stood up and followed Prowl away from the others.

"Did you visit me when I first started to hear in the medbay?" Prowl asked quickly, needing to know whether he just imagined everything.

Starbreaker looked surprised, but whether it was because Prowl remembered or because Prowl was making it up, he couldn't tell. "No, I didn't," she stated with confusion.

Prowl stepped back a little and then sighed. "All right. I must have imagined something then. Sorry for taking up your time," he said, quickly backing away from the group with Firebolt in tow.

Arrowheart walked up to Starbreaker, who was staring after Prowl as he was greeted with hugs, shouts, and cheers by his friends. "You didn't tell him the truth, did you?"

"Why should I? I'm happy with Orion," Starbreaker lied, while Arrowheart shook her head.

"You know that's not true, but if you can convince yourself of that now, I guess I won't bother convincing you otherwise," Arrowheart sighed, returning to their group.

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><p>Prowl lifted his head from his berth to see his brother come in. "Hey, 'Bolt," Prowl said as his brother tried to move around quietly, thinking Prowl was recharging.<p>

Prowl snickered at Firebolt's surprise. "I thought you were in recharge."

"I have to much on my processor," Prowl explained with a frown. After a pause, Prowl then asked, "Firebolt, where is everyone?" The red optics of his brother flashed over to him for a klick then lowered to his berth. Seeing Firebolt's hesitancy, Prowl tried to elaborate. "Carrier… Icescape…"

The 'con vented a sigh and then there was a tense silence until Firebolt finally explained the entire situation to Prowl on how no one knew where Icescape, Hothead, or Razorclip had gone and how Moonseeker had been deactivated. After Firebolt had explained all that he could, he moved from his berth and sat beside his brother. "You okay, Prowler?"

"Fan-fragging-tastic," Prowl replied tightly, glaring up at the ceiling. A silence followed until Prowl looked over at Firebolt. "What did you do when you found out?"

Firebolt looked down at his servos in shame. "Drank mostly. It's weird because that's not usually my style. I mean, when I usually get upset, I don't do that. I just…" he stopped short and stood up, grabbing his guitar that sat in its stand in the corner. "I write music," he finished with a small smile. He sat down again on Prowl's berth and handed him a blank datapad and a stylus. "Write away, Prowler." Firebolt then brought his guitar up and began strumming some chords repetitively until he saw Prowl writing lyrics to accompany it.

The following weeks were spent with Prowl remaining silent for most conversations and writing songs at night. Firebolt never complained if Prowl ignored him. After all, he did much worse when he found out all that had happened. Others on the ship quickly realized that Prowl wanted to be left alone, but the medical staff, Firebolt, and Mixtape remained at his side, despite his quiet requests to be left alone.

Prowl walked beside Mixtape one day. She was discussing at great length how her day was. She knew Prowl was done listening to her, but just knowing he wasn't harming himself or going into a depression was enough to keep her at his side. "Stop," Prowl mumbled. Mixtape dismissed this and continued with her ranting. "Mixtape! I said stop!" Prowl yelled, gaining the attention of the majority of the ship. Mixtape shrank back like she had been struck and others looked on with fear.

It was well known that the two were good friends, but, under the circumstances, the entbots were preparing for a fight. Some waited to lunge at Prowl, who remained tense. It took a few klicks for Prowl to stop giving Mixtape a deathly glare and another few klicks for him to relax his posture. Everyone watched Prowl carefully as he began to look around. Looking a little confused and lost, he looked back to Mixtape, who had relaxed and even smiled a little at him.

"C'mon," she said quietly. Reaching for his servo, she flinched as Prowl pulled back.

"I'm sorry… I just…" He paused as he felt everyone near him staring. "I can't."

Mixtape nodded understandingly. "Okay. That's fine."

Prowl then walked away from her and down a few hallways until he found himself in the same room Mixtape had brought him to when they were younglings. They had watched the meteoroids shoot across the sky in this room and, since then, he had almost forgotten about it. It was a very small room, but very tall with only a single window at the top of the room.

This room was where Prowl tried to come to terms with everything that had happened. Sitting against the wall, he thought about what he could have done. If that laser hadn't taken him down when he saved Crosshatch, would Moonseeker still be here? Would he have been able to save Icescape, Razorclip, and Hothead? Why did he save Crosshatch? That last one took him awhile to come up with an answer. Crosshatch should have been deactivated. He was a stubborn jerk that gave Prowl problems even when Prowl tried to save his life.

"Primus, what's wrong with me?" Prowl leaned his head against the wall.

"Be more specific," Crosshatch chuckled from the hallway.

Prowl glared at him. "Get the frag away from me," he growled, standing up.

Crosshatch stood his ground, but didn't look the way Prowl remembered him. It was definitely Crosshatch, but he didn't look like he wanted to start trouble. There was no smirk or crossed arms. His stance was actually very casual. "I'm not here to start trouble. I saw you yell at Mixtape and walk away and I thought you might want some-"

"Company?" Prowl questioned with a glare, his visor darkening with agitation. "No, thanks." Prowl resumed sitting on the ground, trying to make it apparent that he didn't want or need Crosshatch there.

As Crosshatch turned to walk away, he heard Prowl say, "Why you?"

Turning back to face the sparkbroken entbot, Crosshatch raised an optic ridge. "What do you mean? Why did I follow you here?"

"No," Prowl shouted. "Why did I save you? I should have let you get deactivated! If you would have been deactivated, then I wouldn't have been in stasis lock, and I would have been able to save my carrier!" By now, Prowl had advanced on Crosshatch to the point where he was nearly standing on top of him. Crosshatch remained where he was, staring at the agitated entbot without much worry.

After a small pause, Crosshatch answered, "I don't know why you saved me, but you did, and I couldn't be more thankful to you if I tried." Seeing Prowl was still tense and devastated, Crosshatch continued. "Maybe you never thought that Moonseeker could be taken away from you, and you figured that she could take care of herself if you risked your life."

Prowl seemed to accept this answer a bit more than the previous one. It made sense a little bit more now. Besides, trying to think of ways it could have been avoided wouldn't bring her back. Crosshatch leaned against the side of the hallway. "And, from one entbot to another," he began, getting Prowl's attention once more, "I don't think Starbreaker and Orion are that serious." With a wink, the green and yellow entbot walked away. Prowl smiled a little after Crosshatch was out of sight and remained in the room a bit longer, but with happier thoughts.

* * *

><p>Firebolt looked up from his guitar as Prowl entered their room. "Hey! I've got the song all finished up. You want to practice for a bit and then head downstairs to perform it?"<p>

Prowl, now much happier with his thoughts, decided to put his thoughts of his mother to rest with this last tribute. He gave his brother a smile, something Firebolt hadn't seen for awhile, and a nod. Excited by his brother's new attitude, Firebolt stood up from his bed and began to play the opening chords. Sitting down at the drum set they had borrowed, Prowl joined in and sang back up vocals. After they closed the song, Prowl gave his brother a strange look as Firebolt went to take a sip of energon. "Are you really going for that scratchy quality in your voice?"

Firebolt shrugged. "I thought it made the emotion a bit better. I mean, we are pretty pissed off in this song, right?"

Prowl smiled and shrugged, taking a sip of energon himself before continuing with practice.

* * *

><p><em>I don't wanna feel like this tomorrow<em>

_I don't wanna live like this today_

_Make me feel better, I need to feel better_

_Stay with me here now and never surrender_

_Put me back together_

_Never surrender, make me feel better_

_You make me feel better_

_Stay with me here now and never surrender  
><em>  
>Prowl and Firebolt played the last remaining chords of their song entitled: "Never Surrender". They had a pretty active audience, for it being the middle of the night. At night, the rest of the Ark IV was either recharging, working, or using the music as background noise as they talked. However, with Prowl just getting out of his bubble, more were gathering around to see what they had written. Surprised at the strange mood the music expressed that was so unlikely for the performers, the audience was pretty pleased, applauding for the two brothers.<p>

The brothers returned to their group, sitting on the couches that were already crowded before they approached. Lounging around, they broke down the song for their friends, saying how each lyric had a meaning to them individually. Prowl smiled a little and gave a vent as the conversation moved onto normal topics of conversation. "So, Prowl, I hear you want to get a feel for Starbreaker's cables," Owlflight taunted with a good-natured smile.

This seemed to be new news for half of twelve mechs and old news for the second half. "Well, Owlflight, you were wrong about the decepticon warship and you're wrong about this too. You really need to get your facts straight," Prowl replied, taking a sip of high-grade.

The group laughed at this, but Owlflight had his own games in mind. "Well, Prowl, if you really don't have feelings for Starbreaker, then Mixtape has to be next on the list." The group grew quiet at this and Mixtape grew quickly uncomfortable on the crowded couch. "I mean, you two work together, have a lot of alone time together, and you guys have been known to sneak off time and again." The sneaking off that Owlflight was referring to happened before the attack and it was to discuss Mixtape's interest in medicine. With Prowl being very close to the top notch medics, he was easily able to get her some training. However, the more that they entered the medbay to see the medics at work, the more Mixtape began questioning herself. After all, working beside Riffraff or Dasher was pretty intimidating. This was the primary reason why neither had mentioned it to the group. If Mixtape was still questioning the profession, they didn't want Riffraff to get a hold of that information and force her into it. Of course, he wasn't a mean mentor, just an overly welcoming one that was likely able to convince Mixtape that the medical field was what she wanted. To summarize, neither of the two wanted to tell what was going on just yet, but they also didn't want their "friendly chats with Riffraff" to end either.

The group waited for either of them to say something, but they just continued to look over at each other. Mixtape finally looked down at her servos, waiting for Prowl to tell them and all chaos to break loose in the medbay. "Well, um," Prowl started, then released a sigh. "We're together."


End file.
